Christian Daily Devotionals

by Skip Moen, D. Phil.

“I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul”.  Psalm 31:7 (NASB)

Known – Omniscience.  Oh, it’s a great doctrine.  God knows everything that can be known.  It’s a significant statement about the scope of His observation and understanding.  But it’s kind of sterile.  It’s one of those big ideas that lends itself to debates like, “If God already knows what I am going to do tomorrow, can it really be my free choice"?  I wonder if David ever concerned himself with such cognitive issues.  David’s approach is far more personal.  God knows the troubles of my soul.  When it comes to my relationship with the Lord, this might be all I really need.

The verb is quite familiar.  Yada covers the widest range of knowing in Hebrew, from knowing the facts about the enemy army to knowing the sexual intimacy of marriage.  It’s worth reflecting on this range.  We have many distinct verbal expressions for different kinds of knowledge.  We categorize our information.  There’s a box for facts, a box for opinions, a box for theories, a box for observations, a box for involvements, etc.  Nice, neat compartments where we can “know” the right thing in one area but never let it touch the things we feel or observe in another area.  But yada reminds us that everything is connected.  It isn’t possible to “know” something and keep it neatly separated from the actions that make up who we are.  If God knows the troubles of my soul, certain implications about this fact must follow.

God knows my tsarah.  He knows the distress I encounter, the adversities I face, the troubles life hands me and the vexations that plague me.  God knows these things.  That does not simply mean He observes them as facts. Yada-ata.  He knows them.  He experiences my troubles.

Think about this.  When I weep, is God weeping with me?  When I rejoice, does He dance?  When I shake with fear, is He there beside me?  When I battle with decisions, does He fight for the right?  Yada says “Yes"!  The full range of relationship dynamics is known to Him.  He is not the God of disengaged research or the moral policeman.  He is as close as my breath, my sight, my thoughts and my sighs.  He is the God in my need.

Would it make a difference in our struggles for righteousness if we contemplated the God of yada?  Would we feel His comfort, His guidance or His warning just a little more intensely if we engaged the Hebrew umbrella of knowing.  David worships a God who is intimately involved in life.  He doesn’t sit on His throne in Zion waiting for quarterly reports on our progress.  He sits by our side, asking us to lean on Him.  He is the ‘ezer', the benefactor who comes to our aid in times of need.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/14/sm_knows-me/
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by Skip Moen, D. Phil.

"but rather let him labor, working the good with the hands, that he may have to give to the one having need". Ephesians 4:28

Have To Give – Why do you work?  Try making the list of your work objectives.  Let’s see – pay the bills, keep a roof over your head, provide for your family, gain recognition for your efforts, do what you love to do (and get paid for it).  You might add one more.  Paul implies that one of the reasons for working is to have in order to give.  The Greek phrase is eche metadidomai.  This is capitalism on purpose.  Why?  Because the biblical view is giving from excess, that is, giving from the profit made above what is necessary to live.  You have to have something before you are able to give it away.

There are a few implications here that require articulation.
First, work is good.  God established the goodness of work in the Genesis account.  Work is part of what it means to become human.  Of course, in God’s design, work is supposed to be an expression of my true essence.  I am designed by God to do exactly what fits His plan.  When I work in that way, my work is a form of worship.  It is fulfilling for me, delightful to Him and a blessing to others, all at once.  If that’s not what you’re doing, it’s time to reevaluate.

Secondly, work is not about accumulating.  I do not have in order to have.  It’s not about collecting coin or toys.  Work is designed to be the super-fruit of my life.  I produce what God has designed me to produce for the benefit of others.  My work becomes the vehicle for others’ consumption.  In the past, we looked at the idea that what I bear in my life becomes food for other lives.  In this way, we are all interdependent on each other and dependent on the Lord.

Finally, we should notice that this verb, metadidomi, is used to describe the action of giving alms.  It is about sharing what I have with someone in need.  In other words, Paul suggests that work is intended to produce charity.  This was enormously important in the Jewish community.  From a biblical point of view, people do not work to enhance their lives.  They work in order to live so that they may study Torah, pray and give to others.  In this way, work becomes an act of righteousness.

Maybe we need to do a quick evaluation of our attitudes and objectives when it comes to work.  Outside the biblical culture, the objective of work is too often all about getting ahead, maintaining a lifestyle and collecting security for the future.  All of those objectives rest on the basis of a world that needs to be controlled.  Maybe you and I have unconsciously absorbed some of these misdirected goals.  Maybe we need to take a long look at why we work and ask ourselves if eche metadidomai is at the top of our list.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/02/22/sm_on-purpose/

by Skip Moen, PhD

“But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I."
1 Corinthians 7:8

Unmarried -  “But what about me?”  The painful cry reached me by email.  “I’m single.  You teach about the ‘ezer. But I’m not married.  What am I supposed to do?”

A single person today stands between two worldviews.  The culture tells us that we need to be married (or in some sort of “committed” relationship).  For decades we’ve heard that fulfillment comes with coupling.  The church pretty much teaches the same thing.  So, we are swayed by the bridal advertisements, the sit-coms and the constant bantering of the twenty-nine areas of compatibility.  We think that without someone special, we are destined for a life of just a little less than real happiness.  Worry takes over.  Then we go about engineering our own partnership.  This is a Greek alternative.  The world is filled with it.  It begins with the fear that I will be alone.  It ends with making things work out for me.

There is another way.  It is the way that places my agenda for life on the altar and watches it be burned away.  God tells me that what is consumed on His altar is holy to Him.  Therefore I know that this deliberate act of self-denial is within His will.  By the way, it isn’t any different for someone who is married.  If I am married with an agenda, I too am called to self-sacrifice.  A single person can never take this step unless that person first understands why there is no reason to be afraid.  In this world, fear of the unknown is a powerful influence behind taking life in my own hands.  But it is not the biblical way.  The God of the Bible is the sovereign King of the universe.  When I commit myself to Him, I give Him the authority to decide these crucial life issues for me.  I know that His plan is a good one.  I know that He is perfectly capable of engineering my life so that I encounter (not find!) the right partner.  And I know that if I do not encounter this partner, God is still good and His plan is still perfect.

I have a choice to make here.  I can languish in disappointment because I fear the unknown and I have embraced the partnership goal of the world, or I can wait expectantly for my Master and King to provide for me according to His purposes.  I serve Him.  He will never give me less than what I need to be able to fulfill His design for me.  I can be confident in that.  But what I cannot do is focus my eyes on anything less than His character - my Father who knows exactly what I need.

In a way, those who are single are immeasurably blessed.  Yes, I know it doesn’t feel like that sometimes (after all, who am I to talk?).  But I know that God’s standards are upside-down.  I know that He never allows us to bear more than we can while we are upholding His honor.  So, that means that God knows who can be trusted to carry the extra loads and who can’t be trusted.  The disciples called it being worthy to suffer for His name, and they rejoiced over His choices.  So, here’s the backwards part.  We think that marital bliss is what makes us whole.  God knows that some of us can actually better fulfill His purposes by not being married.  And He counts our willingness to go against the grain as something special.  In fact, it is so special that few are called to such a life.  Those who are called exhibit a devotion to Him that most of us mere mortals can’t handle very well.  To be single in this world is definitely upside-down; but upside-down is a mark of spiritual strength, not weakness.

Don’t be discouraged.  The culture pushes ordinary understanding of life’s objectives.  We who are followers of the King must leave those choices to Him.  We don’t run after the same goals.  We let Him arrange life for us.  And when He engineers being alone with Him, we rejoice and relax.  Life lived for Him is the best reward.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/02/13/sm_single-service/

by Skip Moen, (D. Phil.)

“But we should not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap, if we do not faint.” Galatians 6:9

In Due Time – We want to do good.  It’s part of the natural expression of Christ within.  Goodness is an essential attribute of the character of God, so those who have His spirit are going to gravitate toward doing good.  But it is worthwhile to examine this natural tendency.  A little reflection will help us steer in God’s direction sooner rather than later.

What does it mean to do good?  The first thing we must recognize from a biblical perspective is that God determines what is good.  All that is noble and right and just in our eyes is not necessarily good in His eyes.  Outward appearances may not contain the spirit of righteousness.  No matter how many of the commandments we keep, there is still the question of motivation.  We may still go away sorrowful because we have much at stake.  To do good is first to enter into a serious examination of the heart.  A fearless moral inventory is itself “doing good” because it prepares us for intentional righteousness.  This is step number one.

Having examined our true motives, having put aside those subtle self-satisfying agendas, having recognized when our willingness is actually disguised pride, we are ready for the second step:  defining what is good.  Of course, the definition of goodness cannot come from our own understanding.  Our understanding is the problem.  It is filled with second thoughts, personal justifications and religious rationalizations.  We must turn to an outside authority – to the instructions from a reliable, trustworthy source.  We could start with Torah.  After all, God knows what is good.  Why not listen to Him?  To fulfill the mitzvot of Torah is doing good.  Each and every one of them renews the spirit within and brings the delight of honoring the Father.  Wonderfully, God has provided daily instructions.  You might not be able to feed the poor in Haiti today.  You might not be able to sit with a cancer victim in the hospital tonight.  But you can follow Torah and in doing so, you bring intentional righteousness into the world.  And God smiles.

Finally, for now, we must recognize that a great deal of “good” things are granted that status by human systems.  So, it’s good to go to church.  It’s good to tithe.  It’s good to be civil toward others.  And while there is nothing essentially wrong with any of these actions (and hundreds of others), they might not be what the Bible considers good.  You see, the Bible puts emphasis on God’s evaluation of goodness.  It is not interested in the contemporary version of the smoke of offerings.  God wants humble hearts and obedient hands, lips that serve and minds that delight in Him.  Besides, how can upholding “good” traditions that violate Torah instructions be good in God’s eyes?  Biblical descriptions of doing good are pretty clear.  Substitutions are usually not allowed.

“In due time” says Paul.  The Greek is a bit odd.  Kairon idio is literally “in the pregnant moment of its own.”  This is also essential to meditating on doing good, for kairon idio is unpredictable.  “In due time” is impossible to plan.  It is God’s intervening moment, not our flow-chart conclusion.  When do we stop doing good?  When God arrives to redirect our efforts.  Until then, we work as if He will never arrive and we wait as if He will come in the next second.

Doing good is the call of every follower.  It is the role of God’s priest in the world of darkness.  The particulars of the assignment have been articulated by the Sender.  The mission is clear.  Every action counts.  The only task ahead is to not grow weary until kairon idio arrives.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/01/10/sm_righteousness/