The more you write, the more you’ll think about what to write next. As such I have about a dozen little ideas swimming around my head at any given time. Sometimes I struggle getting them past first base, and in those cases I usually end up sticking them in a Word file on my computer and never seeing them again. Now, for your viewing pleasure, here are many of those ideas that never got off the ground.
These are my random thoughts and half-baked ideas that weren’t interesting or noteworthy enough to get a five-hundred word devotional out of…
- My friends who complain online about not being able to have Chic-Fil-A after church need more Wednesday Night Bible study in their lives.
. - When disciples in Jerusalem stood to be judged for the crime of following Jesus, Paul played the role of accuser and adversary, raising his voice against them (Acts 26:10). No one defended them and those disciples died. Soon after, Paul saw the light and turned to Jesus. As a result, when he stands before God in judgment, and the accuser and adversary the Devil raises his voice against Paul, the Lord will defend him, and Paul will live. That’s the power of Grace.
. - I wish Planned Parenthood would reorganize themselves into an adoption agency.
. - Toward the end of Acts 27, the ship carrying Paul (on his way to Rome) is hit by a terrible typhoon. Paul, true to his Christian character, is the calm in the storm, advising people where to go and what to do while chaos erupts around them. At one point he casually warns the centurion that the crew is about to jump ship and leave them stranded on a boat about to crash. Later, he tells everyone “none of you have eaten in two weeks.” like he’s a Jewish mother insisting they have another latke cause they all look peckish. I always loved that.
. - All you people who usually sleep in and skip Bible class can just keep your clocks as they are this weekend. We’ll be here when you get here!
. - The words of the thief on the cross are remarkable. He believed Jesus had come to establish a kingdom, and that He had not yet done so. This makes the acknowledgement that Jesus had done “nothing amiss” more remarkable, for if Jesus had come to establish a rival earthly kingdom, then that would have been amiss, and punishable by just such a death as He was enduring. It raises the question, did the thief understand something of the spiritual nature of the kingdom? “Remember me” he said to the Lord. Again, it seems as though the thief also believed in life beyond death. So here we have the innocence of Jesus, the spiritual kingdom, and life beyond death all acknowledged by this dying criminal. Sounds like a sermon in the making!
. - My kids sometimes ask me, after the closing prayer, “is church over?” I always say “Church is never over, but now we get to eat.”
. - The context of Philippians 4:13 is not about winning ballgames or climbing literal mountains; it’s about recognizing you are where you are, that it’s okay if things aren’t going great, and that in the end God is in control so just trust Him. Because through Him you’ll accomplish what He wants you to accomplish, and with His help you can get through all the hard times that come when you don’t accomplish everything you wanted.
. - I don’t believe in self-esteem. I do believe in self-respect, but that’s not the same as self-esteem. I believe in Christ-esteem.
. - I completely forgot to write the devo on Monday. I almost forgot to write the devo today (I usually get it done by 9am and as I type it’s 3pm). Pobody’s nerfect. We all forget. We all lose track of time. We all take on too much and let some things slip from our mind. All of us…except the Almighty. He never forgets; His memory is perfect. He never loses track of time; He’s not limited to time. He never lets things slip from His mind; His mind is infinite. After saving Noah from the Flood, God pointed to the rainbow and said it would serve as a memorial that He would never destroy the world with a flood again (Genesis 9:15). A long time has passed, and waters have risen and fallen across the world, but never has a global catastrophe like the Genesis flood happened since then. He hasn’t forgotten His promise. God will never let it slip from His mind. David’s beautiful 25th Psalm pleads for God to “remember” to be merciful to him (Psalm 25:6). There’s no danger of that; His memory is perfect. He will not forget who His children are. Jeremiah predicted that God’s people would be saved under a new covenant and that, through it, the Lord would “remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). Of course God doesn’t “forget” the way we do. Jeremiah is saying that the Lord will not hold us accountable of our past mistakes, if we submit to Him and are saved. He will not bring them back up (“remember” them) on the great day of our trial (Judgement). His memory is perfect, whether he’s using it or not! Peter once wrote that the second coming of Christ will happen, and also that scoffers will mock that idea, saying that God has taken too long to return, and thus probably isn’t coming at all. The Apostle says “No. The Lord is not lazy. The Second Coming has not slipped from His mind” (2 Peter 3:9). He’s not forgetful…just patient.
See you all Sunday.
~ Matthew