It’s Caught - Not Taught
I can still vividly remember the back of my coach’s head. Coach Mattern was a fierce man, a great runner, and an intense competitor. And he ran with his team every single practice.
He grew up the younger of two brothers and fought his way tooth and nail to succeed, to win, and to always overcome the challenge of being the smaller of the two. That same toughness translated to his career as a runner and beyond to his stint as a coach.
He always ran with the Varsity Pack, never compromising on the pace that he aspired to for each of his runners. That same unrelenting drive to win the race translated to the runners that kept closest pace with Mattern every single step.
We caught the fire from the coach. It was something that couldn’t be taught. It was something that could only be gotten by close proximity.
The same relates to our relationship with Jesus. If we follow him, keep pace with him, and continue life with him - we are “made fishers of people,” (Matt. 4:19). We don’t have to be concerned with memorizing a list of to-dos but rather a consistent closeness that allows us to “catch” the character of our rabbi.
We can learn a little about what this process looks like when we study the way Jesus challenged the disciples. He called Peter out from what was familiar as a fisherman - and even called him out from the boat itself - to do the seemingly impossible (Matt. 14:29-30)!
And while Jesus takes us along some of the most challenging landscapes throughout life - we can also be confident that the pace that he sets for us is one that is “easy and light” (Matt. 11:28-30). We do not follow an unreasonable rabbi. Rather, he has “given us everything we need for a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3).
It was in the process of following Jesus that Peter was turned from the lowly fisherman from Galilee into the rock upon which Jesus’s church was built.
What could walking with Jesus do to you? Come and see!
Pastor Ryan Lunde
Young Adult Ministries
Being With Him
Very early one morning, before anyone in the house would be tempted to get up, I found quiet space to be with Jesus. There was time to just be still, to pray, to read, and to ponder. Often, as I read the gospels, I would sigh, wanting so much to be changed, to be more like my Savior. The more I read and “watched” his life, I wanted my ways to be like His. I would talk to him about it and then begin another full day with a house full of little ones. Little by little though, as I spent that time just being with Jesus, the changes did come. Little by little, he was making me into a new person.
On one of those early mornings, my young daughter crept down the hallway and out to the living room where she found me with my Bible open in my lap. She knew it was her mommy’s time to be with Jesus, so instead of curling up with me she climbed up on the couch across from me with her little Bible. When she had opened it in her lap, just the exact way I had mine, she looked up at me with a sheepish smile, hoping I wouldn’t send her back to bed.
That moment was such a powerful picture for me of the reason I sat there so early in the morning. My little girl knew how much I loved her and she just wanted to be with me. She was comforted by my presence. She saw my smile and knew I enjoyed being with her, too. Then came the humbling realization that she wanted to be just like me.
When Jesus called out to those simple fishermen to follow him, telling them he would make them fishers of men, it was much the same. As the disciples followed Jesus, they were drawn to his love and, in turn, they just wanted to be with him. They experienced the comfort and enjoyment of His presence. They listened to His words. They watched his life and they saw him lay it down. And they wanted to be just like him. That’s my story. How about you? How has the knowledge of Jesus’ love for you increased your desire to follow him and to become like him?
Nicole Jiles
Director of Faith Kids
Come, Follow Me
Imagine … you are a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. You have been working hard, mending your nets, in hopes of a big catch. Fishing is your livelihood and the means by which you care for your family. It is not a solo expedition, but it requires teamwork, trust, and down right hard, exhausting work.
You are going about your business, loading your boat full of nets, when this man approaches you and your fishing partner. Plenty of people walk the shores of the Sea of Galilee but this person is different. You’ve seen him before. You know him as the Rabbi, the teacher, one who knows and speaks the Scriptures. His loving yet mysterious eyes look deep into your heart causing incredible curiosity. You know your past, the reality of your current life, and yet, there is no condemnation whatsoever in this man’s gaze. Instead, his eyes communicate compassion, understanding, hope, and love. He calls out one simple word, “Come." Your heart starts to race. There is something incredibly powerful and intriguing about that word. What could it mean? Leave everything? Drop my nets? Give up my livelihood of fishing?
But the next words are what really grip your soul. He says, “follow me”. “Come” sounded a bit scary. It was as if he was asking you to go figure out life on your own. Yet with the words, “follow me”, you see his hand extended. It is an invitation to walk beside him, to learn from him, to be his disciple. “Come, follow me”, communicates, “I will show you the path. I will walk with you on the journey. I will hold your hand. I don’t promise that it will be an easy road, but I do promise to be with you.”
Culturally speaking this is just weird. Normally, a follower, a disciple, would approach a teacher, and after making the appropriate preparations, ask if they could follow him. Yet this man is asking you to follow him - just as you are. A true rabbi would only want to invest in someone who had potential or position in society. Neither are true and really quite the opposite. How could this man Jesus be calling a broken, messy, confused fisherman to follow his way?
But he is. So you drop your nets, leave everything behind and follow. The road ahead looks like an exciting adventure as well as an exhausting, arduous journey. You have feelings of trepidation mixed with anticipation. Yet, the overarching emotions are those of trust, hope and unconditional love. Taking on Jesus’ kingdom vision, means relinquishing your desire to build your own. It is a radical change of both direction and purpose. Your life goal, your focus, and your motivations have been transformed and following Jesus means living for something far greater. “Come, follow me” is an invitation to walk in The Way.
Lynette Fuson
Director of Counseling & Soul Care
The Way
Back in 1998, I traveled to Thailand with a worship band from our church. Missionaries throughout the region of Asia gathered in Chiang Mai for a two-week retreat with their families, and we led them in worship each day. One sleepless night during our trip, I searched the hotel room for something to read and found a book on Buddhism in the drawer of the nightstand. It looked similar to the Gideon Bibles that used to be placed (and still are in some places) in hotel rooms around the U.S. This book began with the story of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the religion, and followed with an overview of the basic truths that frame Buddhist belief and practice. I noticed that many concepts and terms were similar to those of the Christian faith: meditation, scripture, prayer, wisdom, morality, freedom, awakening, and spiritual growth. But I quickly came to this conclusion: Buddhists seek to reach a state of enlightenment, following the path of the Buddha, but there is no belief in a personal god -- no king, no rescuer, no creator, no father. Not even halfway through, I closed the book because I was filled with such emptiness, hopelessness, and loneliness as I read this book. No direction or connection was found.
The first Christians often referred to themselves as The Way (Acts 9:1-2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14). Where did that name come from? Although we find the origins of the name go back as far as the book of Isaiah, the most obvious connection is found in John 14:6, when Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus didn’t and still doesn’t call his disciples to just follow a mere belief system, a path, philosophy, or way of life -- He calls us to Himself. We walk by faith, following a personal Savior, a King, who guides us into all truth and who shares His life with us. He lives among us and leads us into joy and victory through Him. Our King desires a relationship with you that is real and personal, rooted and grounded in love. Jesus didn’t just say, “Follow my teaching,” He said, “follow me.” Our world needs a ruler, a savior, a victor. Christ, the King of the universe, clothed himself in love and humility so that we, His followers, might know Him here and now and to live more fully and abundantly to bridge the gap between our world and His kingdom. Just as He called those 12 ordinary men, He calls to you and me today.
Pilate once called Jesus the King of the Jews, but we, His followers, know him as the Way, the once and future King and Lord overall. Through His life, death, and resurrection, He rises above all other kings and powers, both seen and unseen; He exposes the mere puppetry of Satan and his forces, masquerading as pagan deities, which are really no gods at all. He leads us in a joyful procession to His future kingdom, not of this world, built on justice and love, grace and mercy, forgiveness and truth.
Pastor Dave Hook
Worship Pastor
The Cost of Devotion
In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.” Nehemiah 9:38
Dallas Willard in one of his most famous books, Renovation of the Heart, says, “Actions are not impostions on who we are, but are expressions of who we are. They come out of our heart and the inner realities it supervises and interacts with.” The reality is that out of our hearts come the things that we say and we do. God getting ahold of and changing us from the inside out is what radically changes us into devoted followers of Christ.
In Nehemiah 9, we see a grand description of God and His faithfulness and the response of the people is to make an oath before God to change their ways and their actions towards God. As a result of God’s faithfulness, the people make a lot of promises and oaths in Nehemiah 10 about the things that they will do and how they will change. Ultimately, we know from history that they fail. Why? Well, it starts with the heart. The people of Israel tried to perform in their own strength and failed. Isn’t this the human experience? As my New Year’s goals have begun to falter less than a month in, it’s impossible to achieve devotion without a change in heart. A heart of devotion starts with our pursuit of God and Him alone. As we pursue God, God begins the work of molding us and shaping us into the image of Jesus. As God changes our hearts, we start to see the practical effects of God creating a pure heart in us. As we see a statement of devotion written by the people of Israel, it’s impossible to keep the oath without a renovation of our heart that comes only through communion with Jesus. As we seek to devote ourselves to Jesus, we are changed from the inside by our relationship to God in Christ. Not just outer actions and the things we do, but our ideas, beliefs, and feelings that drive our actions in the first place. My prayer for us is that God would continue to tune our hearts to His heart and may we seek the ways that God might want to act and move in our lives so that we can have fully devoted hearts.
Seth Redden
High School Ministry
The Cost of Devotion
A few years ago Chick-fil-A restaurants passed KFC and became the restaurant that sold the most chicken in the United States. They still hold that record even though they have fewer stores in the U.S, Chick-fil-A 2,605 versus KFC 3,980. They aren’t just selling more chicken, they are making more money; more than KFC and Popeyes - numbers 2 and 3 on the chicken sales list - combined. The restaurant chain that makes more than any other is McDonald’s, but they also have the most locations. The chain that makes the most money per location in the U.S. is also Chick-fil-A, according to QSR’s top 50 report for 2017. On that list, Chick-fil-A is ahead in per location sales with an average of $4,407,100 to McDonald’s $2,550,000. One amazing thing about those numbers is that Chick-fil-A does it while every store is always closed on Sundays. That means their chain is closed 52 more days per year than the other chains. Fourteen percent fewer days to sell food and yet, they are ahead of everyone else in sales per store. That’s pretty cool for them and especially cool given the Biblical reasons behind why they are closed.
In the book of Nehemiah chapter 10, Nehemiah was the governor of the Hebrew people and he led them to consecrate themselves to the principles in God’s Word and to follow the Law. In verse 10 the leaders, with Nehemiah, agreed to “bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.” Including in verse 31, “When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day”. They were committed to be closed on God’s day. No business, not business as usual. This idea seemed crazy to people then and seems crazy to people now. Other businesses can see God’s blessing on Chick-fil-A, but none of them are following their example to close one day a week to observe a Sabbath rest.
The interesting thing about the cost of devotion is that people end up shortchanging themselves when they don’t trust God’s principles. How about you? Are you devoted to what looks like paying a steep cost today, but is, in fact, trusting God and investing in the future?
Pastor John Riley
Junior High Ministry
The Confrontation of Devotion
Hello family! I always say the word family because we share sonship through Christ, but we also have in common a fierce devotion to follow our Lord. Being devoted means we made a choice to pattern our lives after Christ’s at the expense of pretty much anything else. So when the Spirit convicts us through the Word, we generally try to swallow our pride and quickly make corrections.
In chapter 9 of Nehemiah, we see a devoted Israel taking part in a beautiful prayer summarizing the entire old testament. God’s perfect faithfulness was an indictment against the people’s constant failures. The people wanted to walk with God, so they were quick to repent and obey.
In contrast, the high priests definitely did not respond appropriately when Stephen confronted them in Acts 7. He similarly recounted God’s faithfulness through history and challenged them to change their ways, in fact, some of the phrases he used are here in Nehemiah 9. The high priests and others there took the confrontation so poorly that they stoned him to death.
Obviously, this is an example of confrontation going explosively wrong! It does show us however, what devotion to one’s arrogance can drive people to do. We are warned of such backlash from the world in scriptures.
If you’re wrestling with something God wants you to do and you just really don’t want to let it go, this is a call to you to examine your devotion. We are all right there with you, constantly extending our devotion’s bounds in the exact way we least want to.We know God is good and the only one truly worthy of all of our devotion.
Jonathan Duncan
The Foundation of Devotion
The 1989 season was the Dallas Cowboys' thirtieth in the National Football League, their first under the ownership of Jerry Jones, their first season under head coach Jimmy Johnson, Troy Aikman’s rookie year, and it was also the year they went 1-15. And even though they stunk to high heaven, there is no doubt every single player, every single coach, and every single person in the front office was devoted to winning. They all had given, and would all continue to give, their lives to the game they loved. Sometimes, no matter how devoted you are, you manage to fail. (But their failure did not last long! They won the Super Bowl in 1992, 1993 and 1995.)
Now I can’t say for sure all that went into them going from worst to first. Admittedly, part of it was that they made some good trades while managing to avoid significant injuries. But another part of it, I believe, is that their owner and their coach believed in the players and believed in their system. By and large, Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson got the guys they wanted, set up the program they wanted, and were faithful to those guys and to that plan even when they failed and things didn’t go as planned. I think it was Jerry’s and Jimmy’s faithfulness, belief and patience that ultimately prevailed and helped turn the team “from doorstep to dynasty.”
I was thinking about the Cowboys as I considered today’s topic, “The Foundation of Devotion,” and reflected on how it is that God’s attributes (which are peppered throughout chapters nine and ten, but which find special expression in verses six and seventeen of chapter nine) that allow us to pursue him in our imperfection. Just like the Cowboys in the late eighties and early nineties, we are a fully devoted group of people who manage to mix a lot of failure in with our moments of success. And just like the Cowboys, we (and even more so!) have a “Head Coach” who is full of forgiveness, grace, mercy, a slowness to become angry, and who is rich in unfailing love. He chose us! He believes in His system! He believes in us (even when we don’t believe in ourselves)! He will never give up on us! And it’s precisely because of those truths that we have both a rich and an unshakable foundation from which to live out our devotion.
Today, God’s encouragement to you is to do your best (in His strength) to live a devoted life. He’s worth it, and it’s worth it. But He also wants you to know that your failure to get it right all the time won’t get you kicked off the team. He’s faithful to you. He loves you. He’s thrilled by your efforts to prioritize Him and His ways. So if you’ve been a little discouraged, re-read today’s verses, read Proverbs 24:16, dust yourself off, and get back in the game. God promises you won’t regret it!
I’ll see you along the way!
Pastor Scott Smith
Connections & Growth Pastor
The Posture of Devotion
One thing that stands out to me about the first few verses of Nehemiah 9 is the amount of physical descriptions that characterize the people’s devotion. If I put them all together, it tells us: they assembled with fasting, and in sackcloth with earth on their heads, they stood, and they stood, and they cried with a loud voice, and then the Levites stood, and said, “Stand up….” Hmm... I wonder if we are supposed to notice their posture?
I think we are, and I think that is because God knows that our posture is actually an important part of our devotion. The Scriptures suggest many postures that are meant to reflect our devotion: Sitting in prayer denotes rest; Kneeling denotes surrender; Bowing denotes honor and humility; Uplifted hands denotes praise; Prostrate on the ground denotes a posture of awe and repentance; Here in Nehemiah, standing denotes a readiness to receive instruction. The truth is that our physical posture before God influences and reflects our spiritual posture before God.
One of the problems of the Western, Post-Enlightenment thinking that has influenced the church, is that we have minimized the physical and elevated the spiritual. We have believed the lie that the physical doesn’t matter. Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” and we have understood him to mean, “I am what I think.” However, that just isn’t true. You are so much more than your thoughts. In fact, you are even more than a soul! You are essentially an embodied soul, and for eternity, you will be an embodied soul. In you, the physical interacts and overlaps with the spiritual.
My point for today is simply to remind you that your physical devotion matters. There is something special about entering into prayer and worship with our whole bodies. It is a declaration that I am more than my mind and that the body that was created by God matters.
So, I want to invite you to consider the posture of your worship. Your heart should influence your hands, and your hands should influence your heart. This is one of the reasons why it is helpful to lift your hands at times when you sing songs of worship to the Lord. It isn’t to show others how you feel, it is actually to remind your heart how you feel and vice versa. Maybe it is time to practice kneeling in prayer or laying face down before the Lord. Whatever you decide, try to make your physical posture compliment your spiritual posture of devotion.
Pastor Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor
Make a Memory
“And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing” - Nehemiah 8:12
We don’t have too many details about this party that was thrown in Nehemiah 8. We know that they were told to prepare food and drink in excess, so that they would have enough to give away to anyone who had need. Ezra and Nehemiah basically tell the people, “Spare no expense!” Make this a party to remember. It was as if they wanted the abundance of good food and good wine to be a representation of the abundance of God’s grace to them. And so, this was quite literally a party of Biblical proportions. It was such an amazing party that it made it into the pages of Scripture.
It makes me think that there is a time to splurge. There is a time to provide more than is needed. Of course, there is a time to give away more than you can afford, when the Lord leads. There is a time to sacrifice more than you can bear, when the Holy Spirit puts it on your heart. But what I want to suggest today is that there is also a time to try to be an example of God’s abundance in someone’s life.
Did you read Jonathan’s devotional from yesterday? If not, you should stop right now and read it.
Ok. Now that you’re back, did you love the story of abundance? I love the fact that Jonathan’s parents bought the most choice steak to be prepared by their grandson. I don’t know about you, but if I were to pay that much for a steak, I wouldn’t let anyone touch it. However, the beauty of that story is that it is a story of an abundant gift, way more than what is deserved. And because of that, I’d bet that Ben won’t easily forget that story! He may forget the taste of the steak, but he’ll never forget the abundant gift.
This reminds me of a story in the Bible that I have often been curious about. It is the one about the woman who poured very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head in Matthew 26. If you remember, the disciples got mad and said, “Why this waste?” They were saying, “why this excess? This is too much!” However, Jesus’ response is telling. He says She has done a beautiful thing to me…Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. I have often wondered why Jesus said that until I understood it alongside Nehemiah's party. Sometimes, it is just good to make a memory. So, next time you have the occasion, don’t just throw a party, make a memory! A memory of abundant love. And in so doing, you might just be a representation of God’s love to those around you.
Pastor Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor