Daily Devotion, August 9, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Joshua 24:14-25.

Our passage today takes place 40 years after Joshua had urged the Israelites to trust God and enter the Promised Land. However, they had been too afraid of the giants to take the land God had promised to them. Now, all of that generation – except for Joshua – has died off, and God tells the new generation to take the land.

Joshua continued as their leader until his death. As he prepared for his own death, Joshua called the people together to remind them of the covenant promise they had made with God, to serve him only.

As Joshua gathered the people together, he demanded two things from them. First, he reminded them that they were to enter into the proper relationship to God. Serving the Lord had to be a total commitment.

Second, they were to rid themselves of anything that took them away from God. They were to be faithful to God, and only to God.

He was asking them to commit to one God who had delivered them, guided them, protected them, and conquered other nations to give them a home.

Part of living in the promised land meant renewing the covenant the people had with God. Every so often, we still need to reaffirm our commitment to our Lord.

The question is the same for us: whom will you serve?

Personal Worship Option:

Is there anything in your life today that is keeping you from your commitment to love and honor the one true God? Take time today to reaffirm your commitment to God by choosing your thoughts, emotions, words, and actions carefully so that they always please God.

Daily Devotion, August 8, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Joshua 6:6-16.

As the Children of Israel had approached the southern border of their promised land, Moses had sent twelve spies in to check things out. When they returned, they carried with them huge clumps of fruit, attesting to the bounty of the land. But they also reported that the inhabitants were large and strong and lived in fortified cities. Ten of the spies reported that it would be impossible to take the land, and only Joshua and Caleb implored the people to go in, knowing that God would be with them. Now, Moses and the older generation have passed away, and Joshua is their new leader. Over the forty years since his first trip into the promised land, Joshua had likely imagined what it would be like to live there in their own land and even to take it from those strong people in fortified cities.

In this passage, Joshua and his generation no longer have to imagine, because they are in their land, and they are facing the first strong enemy in Jericho, a fortified city. God’s instructions sounded strange, but they obeyed those instructions explicitly; and the walls came tumbling down. From this story, we can learn to listen to God and obey, even when God’s instructions seem a bit strange to us.

Personal Worship Option:

Thank you, Almighty God, for letting us realize some of our dreams and visions. Help us, once we do that, to stay close to you and to listen to your guidance. We know that we are never in a place where we no longer need to obey you. Amen.

Daily Devotion, August 7, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Proverbs 3:9.

Today in our worship services, we begin a three-week sermon series titled “That’s Good Advice.” The writer of Proverbs fills this book with all kinds of “good advice,” solid wisdom for living life at its best.  

In our focus verse for today, he offers us a specific way we can honor God: “with your wealth.” The “wealth” you have may be in different forms. If you have been blessed with money and other financial resources beyond what you need, giving generously from that wealth to God’s mission and ministry is certainly a primary way to honor God. You might be “wealthy” in knowledge or experience of some kind and offering that to others, especially children and teenagers, is a way to honor God.  

There is an old song I remember singing as a youngster that encouraged us all to “Count your blessings” and went on to say, “name them one by one.” As you count and name your blessings, you will discover just how blessed and “wealthy” you are. How might you share that “wealth” with others and thereby honor the God who gave it to you?

Personal Worship Option:

Consider offering this prayer or something similar to it in your own words: Generous God, thank you for the many blessings you have given me. As I count them out, I am reminded that I really am a wealthy person. Guide me to know how to best share that wealth with others and through my offering to worship you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Daily Devotion, August 6, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-11.

In this follow-up to our reading yesterday from this same letter, Paul continues to encourage God’s people to give generously. He is on a quest to collect an offering for the poor in Jerusalem from the people of the churches with which he is associated. As he writes to the people in Corinth, I sense that he expects them to be the top givers among all the other churches.  

There are some key lessons here for the people of Christ anytime and anywhere. First, you are going to get out of any endeavor what you put into it (vs. 6). Second, the act of giving (in any way) by God’s people is to be done out of a desire to do so and not from a sense of obligation (vs. 7). Third, by blessing others, we are simply following the example of God, who continues to bless us in various ways (vs. 8-11). And finally, by blessing others, we give them the opportunity to show their thanksgiving to God (vs. 11).  

When we are young in our spiritual life, we often see giving in a negative way. It is something we are supposed to do and feel guilty about if we don’t. But as we mature spiritually, we come to see giving as an opportunity to represent the generous God we serve. May you and I continue to become the “cheerful giver” that helps the world see what our God is like.

Personal Worship Option:

Here is the chorus for a song written by Carol Owens in 1972.

He said, “Freely, freely, you have received; freely, freely, give.

Go in my name and because you believe, others will know that I live.”

Daily Devotion, August 5, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-7.

Paul encourages the people of Christ to excel in giving, no matter the context. The Macedonian churches were great examples of sacrificial giving. Even though they were impoverished they wanted to help. They had caught the vision that God’s kingdom spreads through other believers who are concerned and eager to help others. 

The point of giving is not so much the amount we give, but why and how we give. God doesn’t want gifts given grudgingly, but out of dedication to Christ, love for fellow believers and the joy of helping others in need, and quite honestly because it is the good and right thing to do.  So, where is your heart of giving? Does it match the Macedonian church level, or does it need an infusion of love for others?

Personal Worship Option:

Reflect on God’s goodness to you - how can you share that with others today?

Daily Devotion, August 4, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Luke 6:38.

There is really a lot that Jesus is teaching here in this one verse. The context of this teaching involves giving money away to enemies and willingly letting mean people take your possessions. It’s about letting go of material things and about giving away your life. This section of the Bible is known for teaching the golden rule - Do to others as you would have them do to you. Today’s verse, “Give, and it will be given to you,” is often used for fund-raising campaigns at churches and in finance classes.

In this verse, Jesus teaches that a generous person will not only benefit from the generosity of others, but they will pour into your lap a good measure. Giving to others, in little acts of kindness or an attitude of care and concern, will often result in thoughtful deeds and a gracious attitude being reflected back on the giver. Everything that we have is from God so we should be willing to give all to God’s kingdom which includes our fellow humankind. God gave his son for us, so we should be very generous with all that we have.

Personal Worship Option:

Lord, sometimes it is hard to give away our treasures or our time. Help me to trust you and let me be guided by you to live a life of generosity. Thank you for all that you have given me. Amen.

Daily Devotion, August 3, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Exodus 23:14-19a.

Exodus tells the story of God’s leading the Hebrew people into the Promised Land and of God’s building a covenant relationship with the people. God builds this covenant relationship by establishing the laws which will help the people live fully, in peace, thriving in God’s care. Through the commandments we know as the Ten Commandments, God establishes first that they are to remember, to love and to worship God and to have no other gods.

"From Exodus 24:7’s referral to the Book of Covenant, chapters 21-23 have come to be referred to as the Covenant Code or the Book of Covenant.” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, 1994)

Within this covenant relationship, the people are called to celebrate three festivals unto God: The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year.

These festivals call the people to remember who God is. It is God who has provided for them. It is God who is present with them. It is God who gives them the promise of hope. And it is God and God only whom they are to worship.

Within these festivals the people are called to bring offerings and verse 19 says, “Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.” This verse will be a theme throughout scripture and throughout all time for our covenant relationship with God.

God gives God’s own best, and God calls us to give our best. In our technological and industrial times, it might be difficult for us to understand the request of “first fruits” for offerings. But in their agricultural times, it was easily understood. There was even a greater good for the community if the first fruits were brought as offerings. The seeds of the first fruits were best for planting for the next crop.

God’s covenant relationship seeks the good for all of God’s creation. In Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Bishop Robert Schnase writes, “Giving is central to Jewish and Christian practices because people perceive God as extravagantly generous, the giver of every good gift, the source of life and love. People give because they serve a giving God.”

Personal Worship Option:

“Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7