Month: June 2017

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PWTE Daily Devotion

No Way Out?

Lepaterique, Honduras

God is our way to endure temptation.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.” 
1 Corinthians 10:13 New English Translation

This young man was waiting in line for his lunch. I’m sure that he was quite hungry by this time. He had joined other children from Lepaterique, Honduras and the surrounding villages to hear God’s Word and play a variety of games. It must have been a struggle for him to wait for his food–especially when he couldn’t see how close he was getting to the food. He was trapped.

Lepaterique, Honduras

Maybe that’s the way you feel as you face temptations. The appeal of the temptation is so great that you feel incapable of resisting. You’re hemmed in–trapped by the desire to do something you know that you shouldn’t do. Those of us who struggle with destructive addictions know what it feels like to be trapped.

It might comfort us to know that the temptations we face also confront other people. Yet, that thought alone leads to the conclusion that “misery loves company.” Paul gets our attention, but he moves us beyond group pity. “God is faithful.” Resisting temptation begins in the person of God. In his faithfulness, God has delivered us from sin and its consequences. The Son of God remained faithful, even to the point of death on his cross (Philippians 2:8).

Knowing that we still wrestle with temptation, Paul reminds us that God is the one who provides the way out from underneath temptation’s oppressive nature. This means of escape is not the removal of temptation (as much as we might want that to be the case), but the ability for us to bear up under that temptation.

We will trudge alone under the weight of temptation, but we do not need to lose hope. God will not abandon us, even in the face of severe temptation. He is our way out, that we might endure to the end.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Out of Sight…

Out of Mind.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

As my husband and I fly over a city we’ve never seen from the air, we look out the window. We’re curious about what the city looks like from thousands of feet above. However, sometimes we can’t see much because a couple of wispy clouds block our view. By the time we pass through them we are beyond the city and soon forget what we were looking forward to seeing. We can’t see what’s there. We know something is there, yet we lose interest if we don’t see it soon.

“For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.”
2 Timothy 4:3-5 New Living Translation 

There are many verses in Scripture that warn us to keep our focus on Jesus, so that we don’t lose sight of Him. It’s so easy to get distracted by those things which cloud our vision of Him—our daily agenda, our future plans, and everyday life. We know He’s there, but we wander from the truth and let our desires get in the way of our relationship with Him. We move Him aside to make room for our thoughts, instead of His—living like it’s all about us. We forget He is God.

Don’t let life cloud your view of God!

Though we will never see Him clearly on this side of heaven, we can experience Him each day on earth through His word, His creation, and His people.

“As for me, I look to the Lord for help.
I wait confidently for God to save me,
and my God will certainly hear me.”
Micah 7:7 New Living Translation 

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Spiritual Nourishment

Soil Is Important.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.” 
Psalm 1:3, New International Version

Okay, it’s three scraggly bean plants, and not a tree in rich loam, next to a stream of water.  This sorry sight is a leftover from a preschool class, now done for the year.  I found it on the kitchen island at church, looking so forlorn.  The three bean seeds are not planted in soil at all.  That’s black construction paper and water.  There are definitely wilting leaves.  I decided to rescue them from being thrown out, and plant them in one of my new raised beds.  When they are rooted and nourished in good soil, they will grow just fine, and bear fruit.

Just so, we need to be rooted in more than just water and whatever passes for black construction paper in our spiritual lives.  We will never flourish that way.  Paul wrote, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him….” (Colossians 2:6-7).  The soil is important.  The spiritual soil that matters for our faith-roots is Jesus.

To be rooted in Christ is to delve into his Word.  We began in water and the Word in our Baptism.  We were buried in Baptism, like a seed in the ground.  We were buried into Christ’s own death and raised with him in newness of life.  Our spiritual roots in Christ produce the nourishment, of God’s grace, to the new life in which we revel as children of God.

Christ is the vine, we are the branches.  Rooted in Christ provides a vivid spiritual metaphor in this imagery of being grafted into Christ.  All spiritual nourishment comes through him, by the Spirit’s ministration.

Whether or not you enjoy gardening, pay attention to the plants you encounter today.  Let them remind you of yourself—rooted and growing in Christ, bearing the Spirit’s fruit.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO