Daily Devotional For Friday, March 8, 2024

Well, you made it. It is Friday. Hooray. You can kick your shoes off and take a break hopefully sometime today. If you are a sports fan, you probably love a little team teasing. Carolina, State and Duke fans are always sending jabs at each other. We do love our sports teams and can get a little crazy about them at times. And when they come to oppose each other, well, depending on who wins determines how we react. I went to NC State and there is man in our church who loves to either give me game ticket stubs or notes when Carolina beats State. I laugh and later pray fire would come down from heaven on him. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Sometimes we come across something in Scripture that convicts us and at times, maybe we wish it were not there or we could rewrite it. Xi Jimping and CCP is doing that right now in China. Read this below:

As part of a push to "sinicize" religion (to make it Chinese in character), the Chinese Communist Party has embarked on a 10-year project to rewrite the Bible and other religious texts. In the Gospel of John, Jesus famously confronts the accusers of a woman caught committing adultery, saying "let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her." The chastened accusers slink away and Jesus says to the woman, "‘Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no more.'"

A beautiful story of forgiveness and mercy. Unless you’re a CCP official. Then it's a story of a dissident challenging the authority of the state. A possible sneak preview of what a Bible with socialist characteristics might look like appeared in a Chinese university textbook in 2020. The rewritten Gospel of John excerpt ends, not with mercy, but with Jesus himself stoning the adulterous woman to death.

The 10-year project to rewrite the Bible, Quran, and other sacred texts is all part of Xi Jinping’s quest to make the faithful serve the party rather than God. At the 19th Party Congress, Chairman Xi declared "We will … insist on the sinicization of Chinese religions, and provide active guidance for religion and socialism to coexist." In other words, Xi Jinping has no problem with the first commandment, just so long as he and the CCP are playing the role of God.

Yet, even under intense persecution, faith persists throughout China and the number of faithful grows. There are accounts of underground churches, brave clergy, and steadfast believers every bit as courageous as saints of the early-church.

The CCP wishes for there to be nothing higher than their authority, and views love for anything besides their Marxist-Leninist regime with vicious jealousy. In an interview the pastor of one Chinese church stated, "In this war … the rulers have chosen an enemy that can never be imprisoned – the soul of man." The pastor ended with an assessment "[The PRC rulers] are doomed to lose” (Source: Mike Gallagher, “The Chinese Communist Party Is Rewriting the Bible,” Fox News as reported by MSN.com (7/17/23).

Read Proverbs 1:29-32:

"For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord. (30) They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. (31) Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. (32) For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency” (NLT).

People have always hated and opposed God’s truth, God’s people and God’s church. Jesus told us this would happen in Matthew 5:11-12, “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. (12)  Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” (NLT). So, why do we act so shocked when opposition comes to us?

Yet, Jesus has also told us this in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (ESV). Yet, sometimes that prevailing or opposition can come from the most unlikely source. Take this story below:

“Conventional story says that journalists should avoid becoming a part of the story they are trying to cover. But when budding reporter Hilde Lysak left her hometown to chase a story, her steadfast fortitude enabled her to face off against an unexpected foe, earning her kudos from around the nation.

Lysak, 12, publishes the Orange Street News out of her parents’ home in Selingrove, Pennsylvania but in February, she traveled to Arizona to file a story near the Mexican border. While riding a bike in pursuit of details, she was accosted by a local law enforcement officer.

The officer asked her for identification, falsely claimed that her video recording of him was illegal, then threatened to have her arrested and placed in a juvenile detention center. He literally told her, “I don’t wanna hear about any of that freedom of the press stuff.”

Not only did Lysak refuse to stop recording, but she transcribed the interaction and posted the video to her news site. The resulting story went viral, and the city of Patagonia later issued an apology.

From a statement by mayor Andrea Wood: We are sorry Hilde, we encourage and respect your continued aspirations as a successful reporter. We believe and fully support the constitutional right to freedom of speech in the public sector. We will not tolerate bias of any kind including infringement of freedom of speech” (Source: Antonia Noori Farzan, "An Arizona cop threatened to arrest a 12-year-old journalist. She wasn't backing down." The Washington Post (2-22-19).

Even Jesus told who these unlikely opposers might be in Matthew 10:34-36:

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. (35) I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. (36) Your enemies will be right in your own household!’” (NLT).

When we read or hear the word “opposition,” we often think of outside or external forces coming against us. BUT, there is another kind of opposition: the internal kind. Chuck Swindoll writes this:

In truth, our encounters with external forces—with people and circumstances that frustrate our efforts—are not likely to destroy us. What I have in mind is how we personally resist God’s leading, His reproofs, His will, His wisdom. Some are so given to internal opposition that they regularly fail to learn the lessons the Spirit of Truth attempts to teach. While others glean God’s message and follow His principles, many spurn His ways. All of us, at one time or another, become guilty of internal opposition. We must then ask ourselves two important questions: (1) How often do we resist God’s working within us? (2) Does our resistance threaten to become habitual? These are crucial questions, and your answers will determine how your future will unfold in the realm of time and space as well as in eternity beyond death. You see, God is in the business of redeeming and transforming people. While the Bible affirms that He will not fail to accomplish what He determines to do, the Bible also appeals to the will of each individual, calling each of us to heed the voice of wisdom, to repent of our rebellion, to seek God’s direction, and to submit to His leading” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Living the Proverbs: Insights for the Daily Grind, Kindle Edition, pp. 182-183).

Questions to Consider

1. Would God say, you consistently choose to obey the Holy Spirit’s leading in your life? Why or why not?
2. Look at your life. What would God say causes you to oppose or resist His from Him in your life? Why?
3. What have been the consequences or the costs you have paid because you opposed or resisted God? What should you learn from this and why?
4. You read the story above about the little 12-year-old girl Hilde Lysak who was opposed by a local police officer named for her simply living out her guaranteed constitutional rights for freedom of the press. This story may have made you made that one in such trusted authority would do this to a child, yet how do you think God feels when you oppose His will and purpose for your life? 
5. James 1:17 says, “As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil and sin” (MSG). So, whatever area you are opposing God, God calls it evil and sin. Pick one area. What area is it and what can you do to go from opposition to abolition of your resistance to God in this area?

Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 12:30a, “Jesus said, `Whoever is not with Me is against Me’” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, there are areas in my life that put up a resistance to Your will and purpose. I know it hurts and harms me. I know it thwarts You using me to bless and benefit others. God, I want to submit all areas of my life to Your perfect will. Please help me to do that. I confess you, that like the Hebrews, I can be stubborn. I want to humble myself to You. I ask You help me do that. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! —  Pastor Kelly