Light YOUR World Devotional
10-17-2011
Mike Slaughter
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is non other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
(Genesis 28:16-17 NRSV)
Jacob had a dream in which God promised to bless the land on which he was lying (Genesis 28:13). God told him that all the people of the earth would be blessed through him and his descendants. When he woke up he knew the Lord was there with him, and he called the place the gate of heaven. Like Jacob, it’s time for us to wake up and recognize that God is in this place. We are standing at the gate of heaven to be the conduit of heaven’s resources for the least and the lost throughout the world.
Jacob was traveling through a barren land when God spoke to him in this way. He was using a rock as a pillow when God appeared in his dream! It can be difficult to see the holiness in life’s harsh places. Places of loneliness, depression, poverty, and despair. But look closer, and God is already there. Wherever you are right now, you are in God’s place in God’s time. The place where you are standing is holy ground! The whole earth is full of God’s glory and God’s potential to heal and restore hope.
Like Jacob and his descendents, the whole world can be blessed through us. Jesus has taught us and empowered us to be his hands and feet. There is a world out there in need, but God has a plan for meeting those needs and restoring the dark places—-us! This simple yet profound realization will empower you to serve courageously for the sake of the gospel message and mission of Jesus Christ.
Have you ever felt that you were standing on holy ground?
How will the world be blessed through your faithful response to Christ’s call?
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10-10-11
Mike Slaughter
He has showed (all you people) what is good,
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
This verse tells us what God requires of us: to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. But what does this mean?
First, God calls us to do justice—not to just believe in justice or study justice. We have power from God for our actions toward people, especially the poor and marginalized.
Justice is a core biblical theme. The very foundation of God’s kingdom is established on justice (Psalm 89:14). As followers of Jesus, we must always speak and act on behalf of those who lack voice or influence. We must go where Jesus is going, do what Jesus is doing, and be who Jesus is being for the orphan and widow.
This requires our involvement in the political process. We must be political for the sake of giving voice and vote to those who are denied, but we must repent of our partisanship. No political party speaks for Jesus and his kingdom. As his followers, we stand in a prophetic tension with the systems and ideologies of the world. How then are we to engage politically?
It is not enough to just donate money and send aid. The church has been guilty far too many times of passivity and even participation in the injustices that have robbed people of dignity and destroyed human lives. Followers of Jesus must never stand idly by in the face of injustice but must work tirelessly to do justice.
Second, we are to be living demonstrations of God’s mercy. Mercy is closely related to grace—receiving what one doesn’t deserve or hasn’t earned. God accepts us, demonstrated through the redemptive offering of his son on the cross, in spite of our brokenness and failures. Mercy is the generous demonstration of indescribable grace! Our call is to practically demonstrate God’s mercy to the people in our communities through acts of service that provide daily life necessities.
Third, we are to serve others humbly, regardless of cultural, political, moral, or creedal differences. We serve without expectation of return or self gain. This is what it means to walk humbly with God. It’s not about us or for us. It’s about serving Jesus in other people: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat” (Matthew 25:35). Humbly demonstrating the gospel through acts of compassion builds trust and opens the door for future dialogue.
Justice. Mercy. Humility. Jesus’ mission centered around these three biblical mandates. As his followers, we should focus on the same.
What group that lacks voice or influence are you passionate about?
What can you do to speak out or stand up for their interests? Go
a step further and plan to participate in a hands-on outreach effort
aimed at meeting the needs of individuals in this group.
10-3-11
Mike Slaughter
Step Out of the Boat
Early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid. (Matthew 14:25-27 NRSV)
Life is scary, with challenges so daunting that we may just want to stay in bed and pull the covers over our heads. Jesus’ call to join him out in the stormy sea doesn’t sound like a walk in the park, but if we refuse, we’ll miss out on some of God’s greatest blessings for our lives.
To experience life you must take risks. One of my favorite biblical stories is when Peter stepped out of the boat and attempted to walk on water. There wasn’t anything about the act that made sense. His fellow disciples saw it as rash and impulsive. When he began to sink, I’m sure there were plenty of, “I told you so’s” and “I knew the fool was crazy.” Why did Peter do it? Peter stepped out of the boat because he heard Jesus say, “Come!” Like the eleven disciples who stayed in the boat, most will miss the wonder of a miraculous life mission because they will never act beyond the confines of the lifeboat or outside of the expectations of those traveling with them.
If you allow fear to determine your decisions and actions, you will lose your life. Why do people stay in destructive relationships? Why do people stay in jobs they hate instead of taking the risks to pursue a lifelong passion? Why don’t people stand up and speak out and act in the face of injustice? It all comes down to one word: fear.
That is why the first words out of Jesus’ mouth after the resurrection were, “Don’t be afraid!” There is no circumstance, world leader, or group that can derail the righteous purpose of God. The purpose of God for a time might be delayed, but it will not be denied. God will have the last word! Faith is persistently hoping in God’s promised outcome and committing to the necessary actions to achieve it.
In what areas are you allowing fear to determine your decisions and actions? What action do you need to take in order to “step out of the boat”?
Mike Slaughter
Sharing Your Faith
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
I was driving on the interstate one day when I saw a billboard that said “Jesus is Real.” I made the comment to the others who were riding in the car with me that even though the statement was true, it was trite. We Christians have mastered the art of benign slogans without demonstrating the sacrificial lifestyle of the true meaning of the words. The world will not understand the truth of Jesus by our billboard and bumper sticker slogans. That is not evangelism. There is a better way to share our faith.
Jesus said that people will know we are disciples if we love the way he loved. The Gospels show us time and again how Jesus demonstrated his love in practical ways, healing those who were sick, feeding those who were hungry, and being present with those in need of comfort. He taught us how to put others before ourselves, and commanded us to love even our enemies.
Others will see the reality of Jesus in the tireless, sacrificial, practical ways that we serve our neighbors—whether close at home or far away. When we spend our Saturdays repairing old cars so poor families have a way to get to work and the supermarket, when we use a week’s vacation time to go to the coast and rebuild hurricane-damaged homes, when we use our talents to provide dental care or financial advice to people in need, we are demonstrating the practical reality of Jesus’ redemptive love.
Our actions really do speak louder than our words. We can talk all day long about the love of Jesus and his sacrifice for us, but if people do not see that love and sacrificial generosity reflected in our actions, our words are empty and meaningless. We must embody Jesus’ message with our whole lives.
When we serve others, we are like living billboards that testify to the truth of the gospel. What a powerful way to share our faith!
Do your actions match the gospel you share with your words? Through what practical demonstrations of love will you share your faith?
9-20-11
Mike Slaughter
“Your kingdom come, your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.”
(Matthew 6:10)
When we pray these words, do we really mean it? What we are asking is for God’s rule and reign to become a reality here on earth, just as it is in heaven. This challenges many of the traditions and paradigms within Christianity today.
Jesus’ way of interpreting the Scriptures was considered heretical by the religious scholars of his day. Our faith practice has also become a distortion of Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom of God. We often embrace a disembodied “saved for heaven” theology. We have overemphasized getting people into heaven to the neglect of getting heaven into earth. The greatness of Christianity should be measured not by how many profess to be Christians but by how many people are serving those Christ served.
Jesus only had 120 followers when he left planet earth. By most standards, his ministry would be deemed an utter failure. But Jesus used a very different measure. Jesus saw faith as an active verb and not a noun. His followers practiced what I call mission evangelism. They understood that the mission was not to get the world into the church but to get the church into the world!
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be actively engaged in meeting the needs and closing the gaps of disparities for the least of these. The world will see the relevance of the gospel when we fully embrace and live the biblical mandate to love like Jesus. John Wesley called it the demonstration of “social holiness.”
Too often we Christians suffer from a numbers neurosis. Let’s quit worrying about how many of us there are and focus on being the hands and feet of Jesus in our homes, communities and the outermost places of the world. It is time for us to rediscover and reclaim the message and mission of Jesus!
What can you do today to make your faith a verb, rather than a noun? What will you do to put feet to your faith?
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