Tuesday, August 26

Acts 26:24—27:8 “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” (v.28)

In yesterday’s devotion, I related how I had shared my conversion experience with my friend Susan while choking down a bagel. What were the results? Well, I haven’t seen any more results than Paul did when he witnessed to Festus and Agrippa.

Festus actually said, “You are out of your mind, Paul!” (v.24). Such a response was my biggest fear, but it didn’t faze Paul. He kept right on going by turning his evangelizing more to King Agrippa. Soon the king said that he was making no quick changes to Christianity. (Think how long it took you and me.) “Paul replied, ‘Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains’” (v.29).

So, like Paul, let’s (1) pray for opportunities to scatter Good News seeds. (2) Proclaim Jesus, not ourselves. (3) Keep praying patiently for others to know him. (4) Go on living the life Jesus calls us to, letting his light shine through us as best it can. That’s: pray it, say it, pray it, and display it. Having planted the Word, we can leave the growth to God. Short time or long, God is the Lord of the harvest. Thanks be to God.

1 Kings 1:38—2:4; Psalms 5, 6; Mark 13:28-37

Wednesday, August 27

Mark 14:1-11 “She has done a beautiful thing to me...She did what she could.” (vv.6, 8)

She? John 12:1-11 tells this same story with Mary, Lazarus and Martha’s sister, identified as the woman who anointed Jesus. She “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said” (Luke 10:39). Later she watched Jesus call her dead brother from the tomb (John 11:17 45). Shortly after that at a dinner party, she used a precious perfume to anoint Jesus’ body for burial. She demonstrated—to the assembled guests and now to the entire world (v.9)—her extravagant love for Jesus.

For the love of Jesus, are we willing to act boldly, without regard to financial cost and undaunted by criticism? Are we willing to do “something beautiful,” sacrificially giving of self, time, resources, and our tenderest love? Even if we were willing, Jesus has no earthly form to anoint. Or does he? In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus suggests that he can be found among street people, illegal aliens, and convicts, to name a few. From that perspective, Mother Teresa of Calcutta is another woman who daily anointed Jesus’ body for burial.

Will you or I hear Jesus say of us, “She has done a beautiful thing to me...She did what she could,” because “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40)?

1 Kings 3:1-15; Psalm 119:1-24; Acts 27:9-26

Thursday, August 28

Mark 14:12-26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” (v.22)

Earthly Senses, Eternal Soul

Join the heavenly Host in a simple, life-giving meal

into which he has poured his own life.

Come together with those things of the world

which are good and lovely, pure and true.

See the high table, the spotless linen cloth,

the shining silver plate, the waiting goblet,

the open book, the flickering candles, the attending flowers.

Hear the gathering saints, the music, the silence,

the Word of God, “The Body of Christ,”

“The Blood of Christ keep you in everlasting life.”

Smell the old wood, the memory of incense,

the hint of flowers, the bloom of wine.

Touch the wooden rail, the needlepoint kneelers,

the warm hands of family, the crisp bread, the smooth cup.

Taste the joy and wonder, the supreme gift,

the Bread of Heaven, the Cup of Salvation.

1 Kings 3:16-28; Psalm 18:1-20; Acts 27:27-44

Friday, August 29

Psalm 17 As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face. (v.15)

There she sat, gazing at herself in the make-up mirror, mesmerized by her own mess. Nothing was really wrong, she thought. Of course, there were the three hampers of laundry, the dirty breakfast dishes, and a smelly Labrador retriever, all begging to be washed. But it was her own filth glaring back at her that was the real culprit.

So she sat staring deep into herself. There they were, the dirty trio: Criticism, Judgment, Control. She’d seen that threesome before, lots of times. So she began to play with them. First, she mulled over all that was wrong with everybody else; then, she launched into herself. Having wasted the better part of an hour, she considered spending more time gazing at herself before remembering the “perspective principle”—gaze at God and glance at self.

Leaving the mirror and turning to her prayer journal, she jotted down her sins, confessing and giving each one to God. Then she just took a walk on that fine summer day, gazing at God’s handiwork and humming:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

1 Kings 5:1—6:1, 7; Psalm 16; Acts 28:1-16; Mark 14:27-42

Saturday, August 30

Acts 28:17-31 I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. (v.17b)

Grab hold of your Bible and mentally subtract from it the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Timothy and Philemon. That’s what Christendom would be missing if Paul hadn’t obediently allowed the Holy Spirit to flow through him while on house arrest in Rome. Rather than sitting around feeling sorry for himself, Paul had “learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11). So, he could see this time as an opportunity from the Lord to witness both in writing and in preaching to those who visited him.

Chained to a Roman guard and with the prospect of martyrdom ahead, Paul surely had some down times. But having passed through other imprisonments, stonings, beatings, shipwrecks and the like, Paul had been prepared to handle the present. We might say his past experiences were fertilizer for the hope he needed anew. Paul articulated this himself: “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:4-5).

1 Kings 7:51—8:21; Psalms 20, 21; Mark 14:43-52

Sunday, August 31

1 Timothy 4:7b-16 Train yourself in godliness. (v.7b NRSV)

Before I used a word processor I learned to use a typewriter. It seemed impossible to strike the right keys without looking at them, but all it took was practice. When I tried my first computer program called WordPerfect I felt right at home, because I knew that Jesus is the Word Perfect. That’s because my training in religion began with Bible lessons I heard before I knew how to read.

Our religious muscles never grow flabby when we keep in training by reading the Bible, praying frequently, loving each other, practicing our religion in church, at home, at work, at play. Religion is not something simply to be read about, but something to be strengthened through discipline. Unlike bodily discipline, spiritual training helps prepare for this life and the life to come.

1 Kings 8:22-40; Psalms 148, 149, 150; John 8:47-59

Monday, September 1

Mark 14:53-65 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none. (v.55)

Many individuals and institutions have sentenced Jesus to death despite the evidence of his eternal life. A temptation endangering Christians is to accept the false witness against Christian values portrayed in some television shows, novels, and advertising.

Just as Jesus was not the one on trial in Mark’s account, his teachings are not on trial in the present day. It is the cynics who are on trial, for their fear empties them of hope, even hope for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Do I yield to negations, or do I affirm the living Christ at the center of my experience? Do I let “the whole council” of the weak and self-absorbed pass daily death sentences on the goodness God has revealed? Or do I know, with those who testified to the resurrection, that Jesus lives?

2 Chronicles 6:32—7:7; Psalm 25; James 2:1-13

Tuesday, September 2

Psalm 28 The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (v.7)

One day when I was driving home there was a sudden noise, my car spun around, overturned. There were flames under the hood. All I could do was pray. My prayer was instantaneous, almost coincidental with the crash. I had no strength apart from the Lord in whom my heart trusts.

Miraculously, it seemed then and now, somebody appeared to open the door when I could not, to lead me to a quick escape from a car that was soon destroyed by fire. My heart exults, as the ancient and inexorable words put it, and “I give thanks to him.”

The psalmist knew that his prayer had been heard. Our prayers are heard and “giving thanks to him” is part of every fervent prayer.

1 Kings 8:65—9:9; Psalm 26; James 2:14-26; Mark 14:66-72