Daily Devotional Fo Monday, April 8, 2024

Today is Magnificent Monday and some of you are back to work or school from your weekend. Have you ever had what would be called “a life-changing event” other than your salvation? These are moments in which you realized that whatever could have happened, would have radically changed your life for possibly the rest of your life. Getting married is one. Graduating from college is one. Being in room when your first child is born. Or, when a driver in another car, wanting to beat the red right, decided to run through the light too late. And that driver T-bone you as you moved out into the intersection with your green light — that is one. Having a medical event is one. Possibly your first kiss and your first date are definitely ones..  All of us have had those moments.

So, let me ask the question another way. What has been a life changing moment God caused in your life to get your attention? The Bible is full of these with God’s people. Moses was the burning bush. David’s was with Goliath. Saul/Paul’s was on the Damascus Road. Abraham’s was the near killing of his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. Noah’s was building the Ark. Both Joseph and Mary was the announcements from the Archangel Gabriel about Jesus. 

I have a strong belief that God is always at work on our planet calling out to us, inviting us to join Him in what He is doing. And if we fail to respond in obedience to that invitation, we and others miss the blessing. Our problem today we are too busy to “Be still and know that He is God” as David writes in Psalm 46:10. We are constantly on our digital devices looking at and sending text messages, emails, reading the news or checking the sports or ordering something from Amazon. The blessings God wants to use us to give to others depend on us being intentional to make ourselves available. 

The Apostle Paul writes this in Ephesians 5:15-16, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. (16) Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days” (NLT). Notice — “make the most of every opportunity . . .” There is a story in Isaiah 6 about a young priest/prophet who went into the Temple to do his daily religious routine and guess what? God showed up and caught his off-guard. Look at this in Isaiah 6:1-8:

“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. (2) Attending Him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. (3) They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!” (4) Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. (5) Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” (6) Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. (7) He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” (8) Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me” (NLT).

If you saw someone coming towards you with a hot coal, what would you do? I think the reason Isaiah did not run, is he was more terrified of being in God’s Presence than of the seraphim flying towards him with the hot coal to touch his lips. This was definitely a life-changing moment. Notice Isaiah’s immediate response to God’s question to him, “Here I am. Send me” (NLT). Everyday, God shows up in your life in different ways — obviously not as dramatic as He did with Isaiah. Are you looking for Him? Are you listening to Him? Are you available to Him? 

You may wonder, “Well, PK, what can I do?” That is the wrong question and here’s why. God would not call you if whatever it is He wants you to do could not be done. In fact, it would not be in your own strength anyway. It would be through Christ’s strength. All of us need to admit that whatever we have done in the past for God was effective, but it was no sufficient. By sufficient I mean it settles everything for everyone at that original time forever. It may have been effective at certain times and in certain places, but it was not effective broadly, and certainly not today. The Bible says this in Philippians 4:13, “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (NLT). Think about this. When God used Moses in Egypt, it was not Moses in his own power doing those miracles, but God. When David slew Goliath, he did not do this own his own strength. David said this 1 Samuel 17:45-47:

“David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! (47) And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues His people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and He will give you to us!” (NLT).

And you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. If you will make yourself available to God, you may make differences that impact millions. Read below (Source: Condensed from Richard Stearns, Unfinished, pp. 152-154).

According to Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, the person who has had the single greatest impact on addressing global poverty in the past twenty-five years is a largely-unknown World Vision staffer named Steve Reynolds. In 1985, a young Steve Reynolds was working in Ethiopia, during what was the worst famine of a generation. Steve spent many dreary days in the relief camps as an eyewitness to the horrors of massive starvation and death, gathering information that he hoped would provoke people to notice and respond.

One day he got a call from headquarters asking if he would host a young European couple, Ali and Paul Hewson, who wanted to visit and learn firsthand what was happening. Steve was willing to help. Ali and Paul stayed almost a month, rolling up their sleeves to help and showing tireless compassion. Paul was a musician, so he entertained the kids by writing little songs. Paul and Ali finally went home but not before they had committed to do whatever they could to help. 

You may know Paul better by his nickname, Bono.

Since that trip in 1985, Bono, the lead singer of the phenomenal Irish rock group U2, has traveled the globe as an advocate for the poorest of the poor. He has met with kings and queens, presidents, prime ministers, and the pope. He has lobbied members of parliaments and congresses. He has persuaded governments to appropriate billions of dollars of aid to the poor. But in a later interview with Christianity Today, Bono specifically mentioned the key influence of Steve Reynolds. 

Bono said, "All of this started for me in Ethiopia in the mid-'80s, when my darling wife and I went out there as children, really, to see and to work in Africa.” Twenty-seven years later Steve Reynolds still works for World Vision. He has served in numerous jobs, working behind the scenes on behalf of the world's poorest people. Steve has been willing and available to be used however God wanted to use him.”

God is willing to take a risk on using you. The question is: Are you willing to take a risk on God using you? Are you willing to say to God as Isaiah said to God, “Here I am Lord, send me!?”

Scripture To Meditate On: Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, give me the courage to take risks with You. I know You saved me not just so I could go to heaven, but also so I could make sure others do also. Convict me not to be so self-absorbed in my own life I miss the opportunities around me to make a difference in the lives of others for Your glory. This is the path of holiness, godliness and righteousness I want to take. Open my eyes to see. Open my ears to hear. Open my heart to respond to Your still small voice. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! — Pastor Kelly