Devotion for September 21

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

There was a chill in the air and I could see my breath. The leaves on the trees were still green but, as my dog and I walked, I couldn’t help but notice the growing accumulation of yellow and brown leaves strewing the road. The crisp air and fallen leaves spoke of the coming fall and another change in the seasons.

I love the fall. Of all the seasons in the year, it is my favorite. I love the crisp cool air, the crimson leaves, the impending harvest and the cackle of the rooster pheasant. Fall is a season for reflection. The year is drawing to its close – but there is still time for making the year a thing to be remembered. Fall is both the harbinger of months past and the hope of time enough to renew and claim what is good and worthwhile.

Nothing is as constant as change. Our lives are an endless sequence of changes. I read that the human body will be re-clothed with new skin every seven years. We are creatures of change.

The Bible affirms this and then gives us the hope of our never-changing Savior, Jesus Christ. It is not that the Lord will not change with us, nor even that our God is unaware of the changes in our lives and in the world. Rather, it is the assurance that our God’s love in Jesus Christ is unwavering.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God our Father. There is no shadow of change in Thee… so goes the wonderful old hymn.

No matter what season of life you find yourself in; no matter how great the changes you are facing; God’s attitude toward you is firm. There is still time to claim the wonderful, never-changing grace of God. Look for it today in the quiet place of your heart. Seek it out in the wonders of creation. Then give thanks to God with the words of that old hymn.

Devotion for April 7

I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under.  Luke 12:50

I can’t remember where I first read it, but I haven’t forgotten it. The lesson was about leadership and integrity. The writer was the first one who said that leaders with integrity never ask others to do anything that they hadn’t or wouldn’t do themselves. An effective leader is one who shares the worker’s duties and, thereby, understands the worker.

In the text above, we discover a Savior who willingly goes through the struggles of real life. This is not a God who stands above the crises of life; nor will his ministry lead him down the easy road. The Savior we have in Jesus of Nazareth not only will endure the trials of this life, but he faces them in distress. As the writer of the Book of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus understands our lives because he has fully lived. He understands and sympathizes with us. When we sin, we do not have a disinterested or lofty Lord who executes judgment, but one whose judgment is always born out of his understanding and love. No wonder Christians believe that God will give us as many chances as we need!

The season of Lent is the time when we look to the suffering of the Savior. This has been traditionally a time of sacrifice for us by choosing to give up something as our Lord chose to give up his life for us. But this is also a time for us to remember that Jesus’ suffering brings his understanding and love for us.

No matter what we endure – the Savior has walked through it. Christ never asks us to do anything that he hasn’t already done… even in death.