IT’S ALL ABOUT JESUS

For many years during my ministry at the two churches I served -- in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and in Green Bay, Wisconsin – we produced Lenten devotional booklets for daily meditation during the forty days leading up to Easter. We would come up with a theme each year, members of the church would be invited to write a personal story, and I would desktop publish them for distribution to the congregation. I recently came across a file on my computer from 2005 containing that season’s authors who wrote on the theme “It’s All About Jesus.” I realized that a number of those faithful believers were now in the church eternal, and for many of them I had the honor of officiating at their memorial service. While they are no longer here on earth, their words of personal witness and spiritual wisdom live on. Such is the case with the following devotional.

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry™

 

“THE MISSING PIECE” by Gerry Christoph (1931–2019)

I knew a lot about Jesus.  I attended Sunday School and church as a child.  I continued regular church attendance and Bible studies as an adult.  Church activities and Christian outreach were a part of my life.

I also had time and opportunity to participate in many fun activities, such as golf, tennis, bowling, and exercise classes.

In my early 40's I got to a point where my life was just the way I had always wanted it to be with a loving family, many friends, and many activities.

Why was I restless?  Why did I feel insecure?  It seemed like all my life I added new pieces so my life would feel complete.  I was still missing one piece.  I had a feeling it had something to do with God.  All my life I had a longing to know Him better.

The obvious thing to do was to read and pray and search.  After six months, I had less faith than when I started.  After deciding to abandon my search, I decided to pray one more time.  My prayer went something like this, "God, I've searched and searched for You and I can't find You."  Then I paused because I didn't know what to pray next.  To my amazement, God gave me the words to continue.  "I'm not as good as I want to be, and I'm certainly not as good as I want You to think I am, but if You will take my faults, I want You to be Lord of my life."  It was at that moment of being completely honest with God and completely relinquishing my life to Him that He filled every pore of my being with His love.  I had never felt so undeserving, but I had never felt so loved.  I knew I would never doubt again.  I knew I would never be the same again.  Jesus had come into my life when I prayed that prayer.  Jesus is the missing piece that has completed my life's picture.  It really is ALL ABOUT JESUS!  I praise His Holy Name.

#6327

FAITH BELIEVES, TRUST RESTS – Part 1 of 2

What is faith? John Patten (1824 -1907) traveled to New Hebrides (a group of islands in the Southwest Pacific) to tell the tribal people about Jesus. The islanders were cannibals and his life was in constant danger. Patten decided to work on a translation of John’s Gospel, but found that there was no word in their language for “belief” or “trust.” Nobody trusted anybody else.

Eventually, Patten hit upon the way to find the word he was looking for. One day, when his native servant came in, Patten sat back in his chair, raised both feet off the floor, and asked, “What am I doing now?” In reply, the servant used a word which means “to lean your whole weight upon.” This was the expression Patten used. Faith is leaning our whole weight upon Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross.

It all starts with God’s love for us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  [As a result of our sin,] we all deserve to “perish.” God, in His love for us, saw the mess we were in and gave His only Son, Jesus, to die for us. As a result of His death, everlasting life is offered to all who believe. 

-- Nicky Gumbel in Alpha’s “Questions of Life: A Practical Introduction to the Christian Faith”

#6324

DO YOU LOVE TO WORRY?

Jesus told His disciples, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  (Matthew 6:31-34 NIV)

Nobody loves to worry any more than anyone loves to pay taxes or have a root canal or host their in-laws for a week. But those things need to be done, so we do them. Maybe the real question is, do we love our stuff more than we do everything else, especially worry?

When we lean into our troubles instead of God, worry replaces worship; in effect, we’re saying, “God, I don’t think You’ve got this.” We would rather trust our worry than His strength and provision. Worry impacts our witness: Who wants to listen to Christians who think their God isn’t big enough to handle every problem?

Worry is a warning -- a yellow light telling you that a choice is coming up fast. Choice one: take your worry and turn your concerns over to God, trusting Him to help you get through them. Or choice two: take your worry as a badge of honor, bravery in the face of God’s apparent abandonment -- a sign that you care more about your problems than God does.

Worry is a sign that you’re paying attention, that you care about what’s going on. That’s good. But if you hang on to that worry, you risk making it an idol. So really, who do you love more, worry or God? 

-- Quentin Guy in “The 5-Minute Bible Study for Men: Pursuing God”

#6300

TRUSTING IN THE LORD

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV)

There are two things which are more utterly incompatible than even oil and water, and these two are trust and worry. Would you call it trust if you should give something into the hands of a friend to attend to for you, and then spend your nights and days in anxious thoughts and worry as to whether it would be rightly and successfully done? And can you call it trust, when you have given the saving and keeping of your soul into the hands of the Lord, if day after day, and night after night you are spending hours of anxious and questioning about the matter? When a believer really trusts anything, he ceases to worry about that thing which he has trusted. And when he worries, it is plain proof he does not trust…

You find no difficulty in trusting in the Lord with the management of the universe, and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of you? Away with such unworthy doubtings! Take your stand on the power and trustworthiness of your God, and see how quickly all difficulties will vanish before a steadfast determination to believe. Trust in the dark, trust in the light, trust at night and trust in the morning, and you will find that the faith which may begin by mighty effort, will end sooner or later by becoming the easy and natural habit of the soul. 

-- Hannah Whitall Smith in “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life”

#6279

TRUSTING EVEN WHEN THE ANSWER IS “NO”

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."   (Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV)

In recent years I have come to appreciate Lauren Daigle’s song “Trust in You.” It captures the tension we often feel between our desires and God’s will. She sings of moments when the mountains don’t move, when waters don’t part, and when prayers seem unanswered. Yet in the midst of disappointment, the refrain is clear: “I will trust in You.”

This is the essence of faith. Trust is not proven when everything works out the way we hoped -- it is proven when God’s answer is different than ours. Faith is not about controlling outcomes, but about surrendering to the One who holds all outcomes in His hands. My youngest sister taught me this near the end of her life as she faced Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer.

When You don't move the mountains
I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust
I will trust in You

I think of Jesus in Gethsemane. He prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Even in His anguish, He trusted the Father’s plan. That same posture of surrender is what Daigle’s song calls us to embrace.

Trust is not passive resignation; it is active faith. It is choosing to believe that God is working all things together for good (Romans 8:28), even when we cannot see how. 

– Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry™

#6250

GOD’S AMAZING GRACE

“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 NIV)

Take all your anxieties to Calvary, Paul urged. Stand in the shadow of God’s crucified Son. Now pose your questions. Is Jesus on my side? Look at the wound in His. Will He stay with me? Having given the supreme and costliest gift, “how can He fail to lavish upon us all He has to give?” (Romans 8:32 NEB)

“’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” When John Newton penned this promise, he did so out of personal experience. His greatest test came the day he buried his wife, Mary. He had loved her dearly and prayed his death would precede hers. But his prayer was not answered.

Yet God’s grace proved sufficient. On the day she died Newton found strength to preach a Sunday sermon. The next day he visited church members, and later he officiated at his wife’s funeral. He grieved but in his grief found God’s provision. He later wrote, “The Bank of England is too poor to compensate for such a loss as mine. But the Lord, the all-sufficient God, speaks, and it is done. Let those who know Him, and trust Him, be of good courage. He can give them strength as their trials increase… and what He can do He had promised that He will do.” (From “But Now I See: The Life of John Newton” by Josiah Bull.)

Let God’s grace dethrone your fears. Anxiety still comes, for certain. The globe still heats up; wars still flare up; the economy acts up. Disease, calamity, and trouble populate your world. But they don’t control it! Grace does. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

#6184

 

CHILD-LIKE, TRUSTING FAITH

“People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and blessed them.”  (Mark 10:13-16 NIV)

Faith is sometimes equated with credulity, but it can be so equated only when the profound mistake is made of thinking of faith as primarily a matter of intellectual assent.  As the New Testament uses the word, faith is trust, acceptance, commitment, vision.  It is not a belief in this or that creed, it is a quality which lies rather in the realm of intuition than the intellect.  Faith has indeed an element of true simplicity; it is one of the qualities -- perhaps the fundamental quality -- of the child-like spirit without which no one can enter the Kingdom of God. 

-- Author Unknown

#6178

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST IN A RELATIONSHIP

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.”  (Isaiah 12:2 NIV)

Have you ever seen the [1975] movie “The Stepford Wives”? The wives in Stepford are systematically replaced by robots that look exactly like them. The husbands can count on precisely the behavior they want from their cyber-spouses. No uncertainty. No frustrations. No need for trust.

But, if you are a man, would you really want a woman who always dressed up for you, always fixed the food you wanted, always cleaned up after you, always agreed with whatever you said, always devoted herself to your pleasure with no will of her own? (The correct response here would be "No.")

"Stepford" is a nightmare community. Why? Because [there is no trust] and trust is the only way that loving persons relate. It can never be removed from the equation. It is the only way to honor the freedom, the dominion, and the dignity of a person. That's the way [our relationship with God] works: trust, risk, vulnerability, faithfulness, intimacy.

-- John Ortberg in “Faith & Doubt”

#6173

PAIN – THE GREAT TEACHER

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28 NIV)

Luci Shaw, my dear friend, mentor, and favorite poet, was widowed in midlife. When her husband Harold was diagnosed with cancer, Luci made a thoughtful vow to God. She said, “Lord, I promise never to give up on You, never to desert the faith.” Luci said that that promise, “like a marriage vow that sometimes staples a faltering relationship,” held her during the seven years of Harold’s illness, and finally, in his death (from “God in the Dark”). I think Luci exemplifies how a woman of wisdom responds to suffering. Her pain, which she did not deny, was immense. She told me that being a widow was “radical surgery – like being cut in half.” But she also resolved to trust God and to learn from her suffering. In an article in "Christian Living” (June, 1986), Luci said, “I’m learning to welcome pain, and not to dodge it. It’s one of the most valuable lessons. Pain has a refining work to do in us, if we welcome it. It teaches us what is temporal, what is superficial, and what is abiding and deep. I’m trying to let pain do its work in me.” 

-- Dee Brestin in “A Woman of Insight”

#5923

TRUSTING THE COACH

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

One day, many years ago, at my young daughter's coed softball game, I noticed her coach standing near third base. During a play where the batter hit a ball into the outfield, one of the other kids on the team was running from second to third. The coach was waving him home. The coach could see that the ball was not yet back in the infield, so the runner would be safe at home. But when the boy rounded third he pulled up and looked to see where the ball was. It took him a minute and by then it was too late for him to advance to home. The next batter struck out, which ended the inning leaving the runner still on third. As the coach and the base runner walked to the bench area, the coach put his hand on the player's shoulder and said to him, "You can trust me. I'm your coach. You can trust me."

In some respects, that's what God is like. He is our Coach -- Someone who we can put our complete trust in, even though we can't see what's happening elsewhere. God sees things we can't. He knows what is best for us. He says to us, "You can trust Me. I'm your Coach. You can trust Me!" 

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry

#5890

IN GOD WE TRUST

Who can we count on anymore? Who can you trust? We are living in a world where trust is one of our most endangered virtues and values. In the midst of the world’s trust crisis, to a people suffering from a trust deficit, it is time to announce at the top of our lungs, “In God We Trust!”

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”  (Jeremiah 17:7)

“When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”  (Psalm 56:3)

“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one that trusts in the Lord.”  (Psalm 34:8)

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You!”  (Isaiah 26:3)  

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café”

#5796

REPENTANCE REQUIRES TRUST AND HUMILITY

If our problem is really sin – a fundamental breach in human existence – then repentance, not self-improvement is the first requirement. This is the biblical view of the foundations of morality. The prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul all beckoned their hearers to a new life by calling them first to give up the old in repentance. (See Mark 1:15; Luke 13:3-5; Acts 26:20; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9-10.)  Repentance is the absolutely inescapable first step of the Christian moral life. Without repentance, the Christian moral life is impossible.

Repentance requires two things: humility and trust. Repentance requires the humility involved in the confession that I am a sinner, one whose life is not whole and who lacks the power both to find either the direction to wholeness or the resources for wholeness on my own. Repentance requires trust in God’s power that can and will ultimately sustain and establish me if I let go of myself into God’s powerful hands. Without both trust and humility, repentance is impossible. 

-- Adapted from “Vision and Character” by Craig R. Dykstra

#5794

BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS – Part 2 of 4

“[The Jailer asked Paul and Silas], ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved -- you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.”  (Acts 16:30-32 NIV)

Third, we are called upon to believe “in” the Lord Jesus.

William Barclay, In “The Letters of John and Jude,” writes: “The Bible speaks of the man who ‘believes in the Son of God.’ There is a wide difference between believing a man and believing in a man. If we believe a man, we do no more than accept the fact that whatever statement he may be making at that moment is true. All that we are saying is that in a particular case we believe he is telling the truth. If we believe in a man, we accept the whole man and all that he stands for in complete confidence and trust. We would not only be prepared to trust his spoken word; we would also be prepared to trust ourselves and our life to him. To believe in Jesus Christ is not simply to accept what He says is true; it is to commit all life into His hands and into His direction; it is to place ourselves in His hand in time and in eternity.” 

-- Richard Peace in “Learning to Love God” 

#5789

BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS – Part 1 of 4

“[The Jailer asked Paul and Silas], ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved -- you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.”  (Acts 16:30-32 NIV)

Notice that there are three parts to this key phrase in this passage: “Believe in the Lord Jesus.” First we must “believe.” We have an intuitive sense of what the word “believe” means: to assert that something is true. Certainly “believe” has this meaning in this passage. However, what the Bible means by belief goes beyond cognitive affirmation. Believe also means “to put one’s trust in something or someone.” Because you hold certain facts to be true, you act on them. For example, you say you can believe that an airplane can carry you from Detroit to Los Angeles. But this is not belief in the full biblical sense until you get on the plane and trust your life to it.

Second, the passage calls upon us to believe in something quite specific. Belief as an end in itself is not being commended. We must believe in “the Lord Jesus.” We are called to believe one main thing: that the Lord Jesus, by His death, made it possible for us to be saved from our sin. 

-- Richard Peace in “Learning to Love God”

#5788

THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”  (Acts 2:38 NRSV)

To repent is to change your mind about the way you have been living. It is to decide to stop following the way of sin and to start following the way of Jesus. When the decision to repent is coupled with trusting faith in Jesus, the result is conversion. William Barclay writes, “When repentance comes, something happens for the future. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Even if we repent, how are we to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again? There comes into our lives the power which is not our power, the power of the Holy Spirit, and in that power we can win the battles we never thought to win, and resist things which by ourselves we would have been powerless to resist. In the moment of true repentance we are liberated from the estrangement and the fear of the past, and we are equipped to face the battles of the future.” 

-- Richard Peace in “Learning to Love God”

#5775

IMMERSION IN THE LIFE OF JESUS

“Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”  (Proverbs 3:3-6 NLT)

Conversion without immersion in the life of Jesus Christ is perversion of the gospel. St. Augustine talked about “the costly grace” of God. Discipleship, servanthood, costs us everything. Everything must go. Genesis 2:25 conveys this powerfully in the image of nakedness: “and the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”

Dorothee Soelle wrote, “To be naked means to be without protection; it is to be unarmed. It requires our surrendering ‘the weapons’ that we usually carry around with us. My credit card, my doctorate, the books I have written -- the whole fortress in which I live -- are all ‘clothes’ that I have to get rid of in order to love.”

To find favor is to be called to disarmament, called to defenselessness, called to discipleship. 

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café”

#5770

DON’T WORRY, TRUST HIM – Part 2

Listen to God’s promise: “’I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). Even if the future God chooses for you isn’t the one you would choose, trust Him.

It won’t be easy, but once you’ve walked with God for enough days and experienced His faithfulness time and again, you could actually stop worrying. Besides, we don’t need to worry, as Jesus assured us that our heavenly Father cares for us. Proverbs 3:5-6 says it this way: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

I don’t know what you’re worried about today, but I do know that worry distrusts the promises and the power of God. I believe in God, and I choose to live in a way that demonstrates my confidence in Him.

After all, God is wise. He is willing. And He is able. Trust Him. 

-- Craig Groeschel in “The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist”

#5719

DON’T WORRY, TRUST HIM – Part 1

Who do we believe in more? Ourselves or God? Our actions and decisions will reflect that.

If God does what you think He should do, trust Him. If God doesn’t do what you think He should do, trust Him. If you pray and believe God for a miracle and He does it, trust Him. If your worst nightmare comes true, believe He is sovereign. Believe He is good.

In Matthew 6:33-34, Jesus says, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” God is outside of time. He has no beginning, and no end. That means He has no yesterday and no tomorrow. He just is. So for God, tomorrow is the same as today, same as yesterday. Was God in control yesterday? Undoubtedly, yes. Is God in control today? You know He is. Then He’s in control tomorrow too. Time is not an issue for God. He’s already present in tomorrow. So no matter what happens, trust God. 

-- Craig Groeschel in “The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist”

#5718

THE GOD OF HOPE

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13 NIV)

If you have no faith in the future, then you have no power in the present.  If you have no faith in the life beyond this life, then your present life is going to be powerless.  But if you believe in the future and are assured of victory, then there should be a dance in your step and a smile on your face.

-- Max Lucado

#5709

TRUSTING GOD MORE COMPLETELY

In order to trust God we must know Him in an intimate, personal way. David said in Psalm 9:10, “Those who know Your name will trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.” To know God’s name is to know Him in an intimate, personal way. It is more than just knowing the facts about God. It is coming into a deeper personal relationship with Him as a result of seeking Him in the midst of our personal pain and discovering Him to be trustworthy. It is only as we know God in this personal way that we come to trust Him…

Pray that the Holy Spirit of God will enable you to get beyond the facts about God so that you will come to know Him better, and so be able to trust Him more completely. 

-- Jerry Bridges in “Trusting God”

#5705