Devotions based on James Smith’s book, The Good and Beautiful Community

We are called a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. I Peter 2:9.  Peculiar means different and strange and as Christians we should be different from the world. If we are truly following Jesus and led by the Holy Spirit, we will transcend the laws of our culture.  When persecuted we will bless and love instead of getting even!  When cursed  we will repay with blessings?  Do we live by the higher law of love? Do others want to know Him because they see us a people who have peace, joy, and love?  The God we serve is extraordinarily different than any other god the world has ever heard of. He loves us so much that He became one of us and died for us when it is not deserved. He is generous, good, loving, and peculiar…His ways are not our ways or His thoughts our thoughts. ( Is. 55:8)  His desire is to transform us into peculiar people who love others, even if they don’t love us in return. It is all too easy to be like our culture where we treat people as objects for personal gain etc. Let us cut against the grain and become a community of people rooted in another world. Let us have the courage to love and forgive the unlovely and the unforgivable as He does us.

Devotions from James Smith’s book, The Good and Beautiful Community

This book has to do with learning how to love our neighbor as our self.  Any of us can do a wonderful act of service but if we do not do it in a spirit of love, it is of no value.  When we do sacrificial acts for others, it can gain attention but we must beware that it can lead to vainglory and not bring glory to our Heavenly Father. The purpose of doing kind things is not to be seen by others for, ”The heart of the matter is the heart.”   As it says in Galatians 5:6, “The only thing that counts is faith working through love.”  Living faith is trust and confidence in God expressed in acts of love in our relationship with others.  If we just focus on social justice we can become self-righteous and insensitive. We need personal faith as well. It is not that we just do a good deed here or there but our lives should be good deeds, that flow from Christlike character.  Let us live in continuous contact with the kingdom of God.  We love, serve, forgive and care for others because God first loved, served, forgave and cared for us. So the life we are now living with God just spills over onto everyone we meet. Let us remember that daily encounters with others are the arenas in which our relationship with God becomes incarnate!

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

In all of the seasons we go through we need to draw from the well of prayer.  Prayer is the key and the secret to opening the doors of the Kingdom.  Prayer is a privilege, not a duty.  It is not an act of exertion but a source of replenishment. We have ready access to the presence of God and can come any time from any where. 
We also need to drink from the well of community. Two are better than one.  ”If they fall down they can help each other up.” A friend makes our lives profitable, comfortable, less lonely, less frail, less vulnerable.   A friend increases life’s goodness and gives us strength.   The author realized one day that he did not have one friend he could call on at 3 am. if there was a crisis. So he dug a well of friendship and spends time now weekly with 2 friends who he can share his innermost struggles with. And of course, Jesus is the best friend we can have and know that He is always right there with us.

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

When we are dry and thirsty, we need to draw from the well of worship. The kind of worship He wants is worship in spirit and truth.  He desires that we seek Him in our inmost place and that we worship in truth.  It’s so much more than going through the motions of worship for appearances sake- it is rather meeting Him afresh who lives and sees us.  We need to also go to the well of the Word of God daily, in season and out of season. Go for strength beyond ourselves, wisdom above ourselves, and courage bigger than ourselves.   His Word is our foundation and we can be sure that adversity will test this foundation. As we hear His word, we need to respond in obedience. Let us ask ourselves what do  we already know that we’re not doing? If God has told us, we need to just do it. Let us be doers of the Word and not hearers only!

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

There are times when we feel spiritually dry and we need a place of replenishment to quench our thirst; a place that gives life when all around us is desert. An example from the Bible is of Hagar when she fled from Sarai and found a spring in the desert..  This well was called Beer La Hai Roi meaning “The well of God who lives and who sees me”.  She found a God who listened to her and saw here and spoke to her. We have a God who sees us and hears us and is already waiting for us when we go to the well. We need these wells so we don’t stop seeing the God who sees us, stop speaking to the God who hears us, stop hearing from the God who speaks to us. The author goes on to share about the 4 wells of Worship, Word of God, prayer and community. More tomorrow.

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

Jesus is the Man for All Seasons. Even when we are in a winter season, our joy is only thinly hinged on circumstances.  When we go through suffering it can make us either sweeter and softer or sour and harder.  We are told to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we can do this only if He is with us and for us in all things and at all times. He is with us in the loneliest places and can help us capture our thoughts.  In Philippians we are told to hold on and to press on, in other words to persevere. The reward of our perseverance is fullness, hope, fruitfulness, and participation in His nature. When we lack perseverance we are blind and can’t see the big picture from God’s perspective.

Even when we get knocked down, let us get up and remember He is faithfully by our side and let us Persevere!

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

God has set eternity in our hearts and it stirs our deepest longings. It’s like a homing device right in the middle of us. If you are wondering why you are restless it could be your “homing” devise triggering.  Sometimes we mistake our heavenly desire for earthly ones and think we need a new marriage, new job, new church etc. We can fantasize that moving on, and finding something new and beautiful will remedy the ache in side. It might for a short time but then we will be disappointed as it will leave us aching more and more. Eternity is in our hearts. God’ planted a seed of heaven inside of us. We can’t fill it with things but rather on things unseen. The author says he doesn’t think anyone is in danger of being so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good, but rather they have become so earthly minded they are not useful to heaven or earth. So let us fix our eyes on Him and eternity that is awaiting us!

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

The author compares our .spiritual lives to that of trees that have a cycle of growth and dormancy. Trees grow seasonally, ring by ring, and that line that marks the ring is the boundary of that season’s growth. We too have seasons of growth and flourishing, followed by a season of dormancy.  Some springs and summers are going to have the right combination of sun and rain, good soil and good climate. Other springs and summers may be dry and scorching, so growth will be stunted.   But unlike trees we can choose where we set our roots. The best choice is near water-as it says in Ps. 1 to delight in the Word of God and meditate on it day and night.  We have the choice to draw our nourishment from the wicked or from the Word. If we choose the Word, we will be blessed and continuously nourished. Let us be like “a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever you do prospers”.! Even winter can’t destroy us then.

Devotions based on Mark Buchanan’s book, Spiritual Rhythms

As we think of the seasons there is a varying duration and intensity of light from summer to winter. Season to season light waxes and wanes, lengthens and shortens. In spiritual matters we are more apt to seek the light in the hard seasons than the easy ones. When we are most light starved we are most hungry for the light. A good example is Paul and Silas who were in the lowest darkest cell of jail. They had been mobbed, beaten, and shackled, for freeing a slave girl in captivity to an evil spirit.  They could have complained but instead they sang and praised and prayed.  Thankfulness was their testimony!  Maybe their gratitude to God had more to do with influencing the jailer’s family and the prisoners than a sermon!  When are told to give thanks in all things and for all things. That doesn’t mean we pretend that everything in our life is good. It means trusting God that He is able and willing to work all things, event the worst things, together for good.  Let us make a daily practice of being thankful, starting with the small things.  As we do this we will see the world differently and more of our life will look and feel like pure gift. Let us walk in the light!