All posts by ljmonson

Devotions

Finding Peace

Matthew 6:25,26  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

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Crazy talk!  Jesus, what are you telling me about how I should live my life? “Do not worry about your life”, sounds like a command. I may not worry as much as others I may know, but there are times when an emotion that could well be characterized as worry does pop its head up in my life. But Jesus, does this mean that when my brakes on my old pickup start to grind and the pedal is as soft as an over-ripe peach, I should not worry about going down the interstate at 70 miles an hour in rush traffic?

Perchance, I think what he is really saying is “Don’t let worry become my conditioned and continual response to circumstances out of my control.  I must rely moment by moment on his provision, promises, and plan. First, I must realize God is the source of my peace, and second, get my brakes fixed.

Denominations, Jesus

Expectant Greeter

John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

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I grew up in the 50s in a little town pushed up against the Pacific Ocean. Occasionally as the summer fog lifted, I would walk a mile or so down to the beach. Across the dunes, I would go. My shoes would fill with sand. I threw stones into the ocean surges. An occasional starfish would wash up and I would throw it back in. I would walk the beach looking for sand dollars and castaway junk thinking I would find something of great value. Sometimes I simply did nothing but stare at the constantly breaking waves. Time seemed to stop and yet pass by quickly.  At the end of my walks was the realization I had to return home. The urge to return was complicated because of two paths.

One path was a retracing of my steps back home and probably chores. Often, the chosen path was to go over the dunes, along the schoolyard and cross a four-lane highway and show up at my father’s workplace.  He was a mechanic at a small local shop. “Hi dad, I walked over to see how you are doing.” With a smile, he pulled out a slightly greasy stool, sat me down, and gave me a soda. “How was the hike?”, he would ask. And I would respond with my usual, “good”.  He acted as if he expected me. Not an overly emotional man, but I could tell he was glad I was there.

I am expected in another place someday.  And my heavenly father is expecting me. He may not have a greasy stool and a coke, and He may well ask me, “How was your hike?” There will be a smile on his face because will be glad to see me.

What shall we call Him?  Jesus my expectant greeter.

Devotions

Jesus the Guide

John 14: 1-7 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.

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On a shelf behind me and just above eye level is a book that haunts me, “Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die.” Each place chapter includes stunning photography of grand beauty and always includes a fly fisherman living the dream.  Once and a while I take it down and read about the grandeur of each place. I fantasize for a moment or two. I envision the availability of hungry fish almost begging me to cast a piece of feather and fur in their area. Why does it haunt me?  Fifty places are just too much. Each page has a drag on my soul, knowing “It can’t be done.” Fifty places are impossible. It is a promise without hope. And for some, heaven is much like my fishing book.

All the visions, and wishes, are accompanied by feelings of unattainability and it silently haunts us. We want to go but the price is too high.  Today, I am well assured that this place called heaven is more wonderful and sweeter than any stream in Alaska.  My Jesus has promised me.  He gives me the opportunity.  He provides the path.  So just below my shelf with all my fishing books, at my eye level is a better book.  A book that brings hope and promise. A book that brings calming joy, for it tells of a single destination of peace.

What shall we call Him? Jesus the guide.

Devotions, Forgiveness, Life, Mercy, PINOGAM

I need “IT”

Micah 7:18 “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”

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We all have been there.  Thinking we have our lives in control and then something never even conceived in our worst nightmare happens.  And we fall on our faces in grief and regret. We come to a place where all the fixing and repairing will not work. The only solution is mercy.

I have been there. I have experienced it.  I have panted for it.  I have never deserved it.  My own weakness, foolishness, pride, personal independence, and simple rebellion have all been efforts to run away from it.  Mercy is the “IT” of my life. My life has tasted the power of God to forgive. “IT” is only when we get away from ourselves and we find God. Mercy is the only solution and path to peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, and victory.

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Lord, as my day begins, I resign my own stubbornness to simply accept your mercy.

Bible Study, Devotions, Forgiveness, Mercy, Personal, PINOGAM, Ramblings

Grace and Mercy

Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

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I grew up in the shadow of a military training base. My Boy Scout leader was a drill instructor.  Many of the adults in the periphery of my life were in the military. My father was in the Naval Reserve and wore his Senior Chief uniform proudly. He tried to keep my brothers and sister shipshape.  Everything had its place, and everything should be in that place. To his dismay, it was seldom as he would expect. I grew up with absolute expectations of proper behavior and most often came up short of my father’s spit and polish.

I have spent years living and breathing in the world of expectations of other people. I lived in constant threat of disappointment to the socially acceptable norm.  My ingrained nature is one of trying to live up to someone else’s imposed expectation.  I failed a lot. Trying as I might, I could not be what the world expected because their expectations never included mercy.

I have found a new life. Now I live in mercy. I have experienced it.  I have cultivated it.  I have a great need for it. I cannot exist without it. And when it becomes a part of me, my life finds truth, purity, holiness, peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, and victory. My years of living in this great mercy cause me to show mercy.

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Lord, remind me again and again that in your mercy I need to show mercy.

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Assurance, Bible Study, Devotions, Motivation, Prayer, Renewal

MY BEST FUTURE

Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

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The worst thing Imperial Rome could do to punish anyone was to nail him to a wooden cross. Hour after hour of extreme pain would be the far beyond the limit of cruel and inhuman punishment. So why, in the grand plan of God did Jesus have to endure it? It is an ugly picture of man’s worst.  Jesus on the cross, why? Why did God’s perfect plan include a crown of thorns? Why would a blameless and perfectly loving person have to die?

That body slain for things He had not done was for a reason. It was for me!  It was so I can have my own personal shortcomings and willful disobediences separated from me.  All that would weigh me down and slow me are rolled away. It is only at the cross that I can see the light of forgiveness and assurance.

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Lord, I am no longer living in my willful disobedience because I am living in you.  I thank you and release my past for the best future.

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Assurance, Bible, Bible Study, Devotions, Motivation, Prayer

Hope and Assurance

Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

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I know well that time drips by at a singular and regular pace.  Yet my perception of time changes from moment to moment. April has been a month of seemingly long duration punctuated with bursts of insane headlong manic. All the while, I have steadied myself with a revelation of the importance of assurance in my life.  How anyone can survive the ebbs and flows of life without assurance in something more baffles me. For me, I must be well-grounded in the Word of God, accept God’s promises, and walk in the light as He is in the light.  Not because of anything I have done or even deserve.  I live in the assurance of God loving me. God dwelling within me, His very presence, and the absolute knowledge of whom I belong, are what sustain me. Together are two hopes, salvation and the assurance with comes with it.

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Lord, please remind me again in my hectic sameness to focus on you.  Only You can keep me moment by moment.

Devotions

Even So Come!

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Isaiah 45:21d-22 “There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”

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Often, I do not perceive any urgency in the Church.  Much like the religious hierarchy of the time of Jesus, there was little unction to bring others into the faith of God.  Today, social issues seem to outweigh the ethical mandate of the Bible. There should be a visceral and palpable feeling of NOW.  Why is there no panic in the church to provide to the world the only answer to every question, God? The restoration of faith in God’s solution is the solution to the ills which befall our world. God is going to return.  Is the lack of urgency because we worry He will not come and judge soon or simply because we do not think we can make a difference? Nevertheless, I will continue, to move, to write, to tell.  Even so, Lord Jesus come.

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Dear Lord, renew a sense of urgency in my daily life.  Help me to see you are the only answer.

Assurance, Devotions, Life, Prayer

Trust Not Adjust

Colossians 3:2-3 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

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The world has drilled into our minds from early childhood a need for conformity. There is a “norm” to which we must conform. Our culture tells us that success and happiness depend upon how well we adjust to it.  And once we have God in our lives, this religious experience can become an add-on.

We must recognize one of the great problems in our modern Christianity: Those who come to Christ probably have their minds made up that to stay sane they must remain “adjusted” to the society around them.  We will add Jesus to our lives to the edge of our culture, but not an inch over. 

But the world does not have any idea where it is going.  Our society has never found its highest and best.  It is a life groping in the darkness dragging Jesus along the way.  All the while we are filled with puzzlement, fear, and frustration.

Thankfully, it was to this kind of world Jesus came. He died for its sin and now lives for the salvation of all who will trust and not adjust.

Assurance, Bible, Bible Study, Devotions, Life, Motivation, Ramblings

Today

Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

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Discovering and doing the will of God is the “only” way to have a consistent experience of His abundant life.  I have but one simple decision every morning as I shake the sleep from my eyes.  That decision is how I shall live my life today.  Either I will let the world affect me or I will affect the world for God.  There are thousands of alternative paths to follow if the world is my choice.  But to choose Jesus there is only one.  Today I will seek.  Today I will find.  Today I will call upon Him. Today God will have mercy. Today God will be God in my life.  Today God will freely pardon. Today I will choose to glorify Him.  Today I will be the person God has intended me to be.  I will seek Him while He may be found.  I will call upon Him while I still have breath.  It may sound trite, but I say it again: today is the first day of the rest of my life.