Christian Daily Devotionals

By Mark Buchanan

"Be still, and know that I am God;.."  Psalm 46:10

I've felt overwhelmed a few times this month - caught in the too little, too late, too many, too much syndrome.  More than once, my time or wisdom or energy or patience seemed sorely outmatched by the need of the moment.  It's like trying to extinguish a forest fire with a garden hose, fight a war with a pea shooter, navigate chaos in a rowboat.

Can you relate?
What do you do when that happens?

Here's what I do: run around in rapid circles and scream like a 4-year old.

But that never seems to work (though the screaming brings minor and short-term relief, and has the added benefit of terrifying my neighbor's cats). So my next and better resort is to sit down and shut up.  I am learning (ever so slowly) to convert my inadequacy into fresh dependency on God and, through that, a fresh discovery God's sufficiency.  God is in the habit of calling us down into valleys deeper and darker than our courage can bear, out onto waters rougher and wider than our stomachs can handle, up atop mountains taller and steeper than our strength can endure.  It's in those places where we expend the last ounce of our own courage and calm and strength, and either fail miserably or come face-to-face with the living God.

I met this week with a friend who two years ago failed miserably.  He got out on the water, panicked, and sank.  But even in the depths, God was there.  He came face-to-face.  It is making all the difference.

I think when Peter walked on the water, Jesus knew full well what would happen: first he'd do fine, pirouetting on the waves, and then he'd lose nerve and start plummeting.  The bigness of the waves overwhelmed him.  But I think Jesus set it up for Peter to learn afresh his complete inadequacy in order to admit his utmost dependency in order to discover God's total sufficiency.

So if you're running around in rapid circles and screaming like a 4-year old (or your version thereof), try this instead: shut up, sit down, and rediscover the living God.  Convert your inadequacy into your dependency and there find His sufficiency.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/11/28/mb_chaos/

by Mark Buchanan
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“. . . redeeming the time, because the days are evil.�
Ephesians 5:16

That’s one of the Apostle Paul’s phrases (Ephesians 5:16); the phrase is sometimes translated as “make the most of every opportunity,� but I prefer “redeem the time�.  Redemption language is mostly used in connection with salvation.  But the original context for that language was the slave market, when a slave’s freedom was purchased.  When that happened, the slave was redeemed: bought at a price, paid in full, and set free.  It’s a striking picture of what Jesus did for you: bought you at a price-- his own blood – paid in full, and set you free.  You’re not a slave (to the devil, to sin, to fear, to death, to selfishness) anymore.

Jesus did even more: he then adopted you as his child, and appointed you as his priest and ambassador.

He redeemed you. Is there a better story in all the earth?

And this is the language Paul uses in relation to time: Redeem it.  Buy it back, set it free, and appoint it to a new purpose entirely.  So much of our time is “enslaved�: we’re stuck in traffic, or waiting outside a doctor’s office, or sick in bed, or locked into a job we can barely stand.  Time is our taskmaster.  It rules us, and grinds us.

Well, redeem it: pray in the traffic jam, “walk across the room� in the Doctor’s office, memorize the Word on your sick bed,  turn your menial tasks into acts of worship.  When you do that, you rule time, and it submits to you. You’re free.

My challenge to you this week: when you find yourself in circumstances you can’t change – time is not your own, but is “enslaved� to some other purpose – ask God how you might, there and then, redeem it. And then just do it.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/10/14/mb_redeem/
Not to be reprinted without permission

By: Mark Buchanan
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I met recently with a Christian leader, and we got onto the topic, How do you lead in a storm?  How do you lead a church or organization or ministry or business or family in times of hardship, conflict and crisis, so that everyone comes out the other side stronger, wiser, better?
     
-  Well, here’s the answer in 3 easy steps…
  
- Of course, it’s not that easy.

Not quite.  But it’s maybe easier than we think.  First, much of the Bible narrates and gives specific guidance for this very thing.  Most of the stories of biblical leadership – Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Esther, Nehemiah, Paul, Jesus, and many more – are stories of leading in a storm.  Joseph survives his brothers’ evil and rescues his brothers from their plight, and in the meanwhile saves a whole country from disaster. 

Moses faces down Pharaoh.  Joshua faces down Jericho.  Nehemiah overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to rebuild a city’s walls and a community’s hope.  Paul endures a juggernaut of opposition to fulfil his mission.  And Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame.
        
- Or just look at history: all great leaders were refined in fire, tested by storm.
 
- All of these examples are there for us to glean their lessons.

Second, the deepest reality is that God is bigger than your storm.  He’s bigger than any storm.  If we don’t believe this, we’ll be like the disciples (many who were fishermen and should have been used to storms) panicking by the wind and the waves.  If we do believe it, we’ll walk on water.

Are you in a storm?  At work?  In your home?  In your finances?  Take courage from leaders who’ve gone before you and weathered storms, most worse than yours.

And take strength in knowing God is bigger than any and every storm, yours included.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2008/10/20/mb_leading/

 

 

By Mark Buchanan
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I have, over the past 5 years, corresponded regularly with an inmate, Stephen D, in a maximum security penitentiary in Indiana.  Stephen was released April 13, (my son’s birthday)

The past few years have been an education for me.  Stephen writes in a tight, neat script and uses all the margins on both sides of foolscap.  His letters run 8-12 pages.  He has provided me with the inside view of prison life, and an inside glimpse into one prisoner’s heart, like nothing I could have got short of doing prison time myself. 
              
(Stephen has told me that any part of his story that would help others I’m free to share).
 Mostly, his letters have been for me a graduate level course on the reality and power of God’s grace.  Stephen is in the company of sex offenders, murderers, gangsters, drug peddlers, career criminals.  His own crime is grievous.  Yet over and over I have been moved to tears as he describes how Jesus is transforming him, and the men around him, from being “the worst of sinners� to being “examples of God’s mercy and unlimited patience� (1 Timothy 1:15-16).  A sample from his latest letter (again, with his full permission) as he describes a worship service among prisoners: 

The Lord is truly working miracles….  As I look around, the magnitude of what Jesus is doing is nothing short of revealing who He is – all for our good.  The signs of his mercy surround us.  His costly grace is being evidenced through the hearts of many who, with a life surrendered to His will, have abandoned the short-lived trappings of this world.  The sounds of rejoicing rain down from the redeemed of the Lord.  What a mighty God we have chosen to serve!

Almost makes you want to go to prison!

Why am I telling you this? The prison chaplain from Gordon Head in Victoria shared with the pastors of the city.  One thing he said is that prisoners’ who turn their life over to Jesus in prison, and make significant progress there, often never find a church after their release where they feel welcome.  He also warned about some of the pitfalls of churches who are naïve – who entrust too much too soon to men and women who are just beginning to sort out life this side of freedom.  He’s not recommending such naivety.  But many churches choose the opposite approach: open suspicion, even hostility.  Ex-prisoners sniff that out quickly, get the message, and stay away.

It got me thinking: if Stephen came to New Life, would he feel welcome?  (He won’t be coming here: he’s not allowed out of his country.  But a good question).  I think the answer is yes.  All the same, it’s worth pushing the question a little further by making it, for each of us, personal: would I welcome him?

May God’s grace abound in all our lives.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2008/09/02/mb_grace-abounds/

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Mark Buchanan is a pastor and freelance writer who lives on the West Coast of Canada. Educated at the University of British Columbia and Regent College. Has written, The Rest of God; Your God is too Safe, and Things Unseen.  Learn more about Mark: www.newlifechurch.bc.ca/about-us/mark/