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Christ Alive Here (CAH) Devotionals
Devotional Titles
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The Bewildering Call of God
​Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. And on the third day he will rise again.”
The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.” Luke 18:31-34:
I heard the call of God recently and it seemed so clear to me because I was inspired to create something new, something I thought would be helpful to others. I knew with certainty that God was leading me. Then last Tuesday as I worked on the project I ran into a brick wall and nothing I was doing was working. The technology I was using seemed to betray me at every turn, and I wondered if this initiative was really what God was calling me to after all. So I came into our garden room at home where I journal and pray and, and as I journaled I wrote to God these words:
“Oh, dear Father my feeling of loneliness pulls me down into the darkness and dust. Empty exasperation haunts me”
So I continued to sit there and write for a while and out of the blue, these words came to me from God as they sometimes do:
“All of this exasperation is but a puff of air in this room where you and I abide together.”
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As I paused and just listened for the still quiet voice of God, I thought of Jesus’ heart and his face dripping with blood on the cross. I allowed myself to sit still in the presence of the suffering Jesus. And eventually these words poured out onto the page as I typed
“…But, Jesus, even in my frustration I can locate the crimson beat of your heart, for you inhabit every corner of my being.”
I allowed all of this to wash over me like the warm waves of a crystal blue lake and I wrote these words to God:
“…under the roof of your home abides your Son, my Brother Jesus, who leaves in an instant to chase after me when I get lost. Your Spirit bubbles up inside me in the most unanticipated circumstances. And I need do nothing… but rest in you… do nothing but breathe in the lively current of your fluid, abundant grace.”
And then and there, in my moment of dryness and emptiness, God and his Son came to rescue me. But first I had to be honest and admit my feelings of emptiness. I had to abandon the confidence I had known in the earlier call of God and admit my sense of powerlessness and frustration. And once I did that I could hear God again.
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You know, looking at Jesus on the cross and how his life ended on earth, to everyone he seemed an absolute failure. But from God’s point of view Jesus was in triumph “because God’s purpose is hardly ever the same as man’s purpose.”
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The bewildering call of God comes into our lives. But sometimes we are very much like those apostles as Jesus told them what was about to happen to him in Jerusalem. They did not understand and so it is with us, God’s WILL can never be understood absolutely or adequately explained, even in the spirited language of poets…... Sometimes his will and his call to us just bubbles up inside our inner human nature. Oswald Chambers describes it this way:
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“The call of God cannot be definitely stated, because his call is simply - to be his friend - and to accomplish his own purposes.”
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Chambers goes on to say:
“Our test is in truly believing that God knows what he desires. The things that happen do NOT happen by chance – they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is sovereignly working out his own purposes. Jesus Christ called his disciples to see him put to death, leading every one of them to the place where their hearts would be broken.” [1]
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Watching and listening to the survivors of the Maui wildfires in 2023 was heart-breaking so why would we even decide to watch it? Because Christ is Alive here in our homes and there in Hawaii. Christ is suffering and I think I am called to suffer with him even though my instincts tell me to escape these pictures and news stories. Being alive in Christ means that I am willing to dwell a while in the presence of the pathetic failure of humans to control everything. We, like Jesus, might look and feel like failures. But to see how God triumphs in Hawaii or in our hearts as we feel their pain takes not a human effort and triumph but a spiritual one.
So rather than asking myself what is God’s purpose in allowing such tragedies, instead maybe I should begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose.
So when I am frustrated with my new project and my purposes and I hit a brick wall, maybe I need to stop, adopt a different approach, a relaxed pace which is the pace that should be characteristic of all the children of God.
- Glenn Currier
Editor
[1] Based on Oswald Chambers, August 5th devotional in his book: My Utmost for His Highest
Suffering Afflictions
“I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” Matthew 5:29
Besides Satan, can you think of someone who you might say is an evil person? I can think of one or two politicians or very powerful rascals over the years whom I might have said were evil persons. Although I don’t like making such a judgement because there is good in everyone. But when Jesus said “Don’t resist an evil person.” it took me aback. If someone came into our sanctuary with an assault weapon I would certainly resist them. I’ve already imagined such a thing happening. There are things we would say are just natural to do - like hitting back at someone who hits me. It would be natural for me to resist someone who makes a false accusation about me and to look for a rebuke of them.
Jesus would see all of these so-called natural reactions as opportunities to exhibit the love of his Father. Oswald Chambers says that a personal insult becomes an opportunity for a saint to reveal the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus. Jesus was the king of kings and lord of lords. But his kingdom is a spiritual one, it is beyond our earthly nature. That is - it is not in the “natural” realm.
Reading chapter 5 of Matthew, we find the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount. Jesus preaches to us that we are NOT to be satisfied with only doing our duty – obeying the ten commandments. But we need to do what is NOT our duty. It is not our duty to go the second mile. It is not our DUTY to turn the other cheek. And Jesus goes further. If it is our ambition to be his disciples we will do these things. Turn the other cheek, go the second mile.
A mistake I have made in the past is to focus on my rights. For example, I might find myself thinking that I have a right to not have my sleep interrupted at 2 in the morning by my friend who is drunk and needs a ride home. Another example: What if a pastor heard his phone ringing at 3 in the morning but ignored it, saying to himself: I have a right to my sleep, but the call was from a church member whose wife just died? Would you think he is being a good disciple of Christ? And what about my drunk friend? After all it was his choice to get drunk and he deserves to receive whatever he would out on the streets. What if someone passed by me and overheard me telling a friend “I am a saint.” And this passerby goes on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and tells everyone that he heard me bragging to someone that was a saint. When in fact I was just telling my friend that St. Paul called the Philippians and other Christians “saints.” And that passerby proclaims on his Facebook posting “This man claims to be saint. But I knew him from way back and he cussed and gossiped with the best of them - what a hypocrite he is claiming to be a saint.” This guy obviously misrepresented me and took my statement out of context. I might be justified saying say that he violated my right to privacy. My right! But when I insist on having my own rights, I might actually be hurting the Son of God. When in reality I could prevent Christ and his church from being hurt by taking the blows of the Twitter guy and saying nothing.
In Colossians 1:24 Saint Paul says this to the Colossians: “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Again Paul reminds us that Christ is alive here and in the church. Furthermore by taking the blow of being misrepresented and misunderstood like Jesus did so often, then I am honoring our Lord Jesus Christ. It is his honor the honor of the Body of Christ that is at stake, not my own.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Oswald Chambers puts it a different way: “Never look for righteousness in the other person, but never cease to be righteous yourself.” That’s a pretty big challenge I think. He goes on to say we should not wear ourselves out looking for justice, but instead we should never ever cease giving it.
Jesus’ teachings so often are the opposite to what seems natural. That is why it is not easy to be a disciple of Jesus. And that is why I kept thinking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his book, The Cost of Discipleship. He said we should not look at grace or talk about it assuming that it is cheap. He believed that the call to discipleship involves suffering and sacrifice. This is because anyone who follows Jesus must also pick up his cross and follow the path of suffering that Jesus walks. Just like Jesus suffered in solidarity with us, so must Christians who really want to be disciples of Jesus.
My conclusion is that I should consider it a privilege to pick up the cross of Jesus when I suffer a back ache, or be in solidarity with my wife in her suffering with her back or my sister in her trauma of finding and moving into a new place at the age of 75 in the large urban area in Oregon where she has no relatives. It is a privilege to listen to her and encourage her in her state of being overwhelmed.
You parents and grandparents feel the pain being suffered by your children and their children. You bear it without complaint and perhaps even with a sad smile because it is your privilege to pay the cost of being a disciple of Christ.
- Glenn Currier
Editor
My immense thanks to Oswald Chambers for another inspiration from his book: My Highest for His Utmost
Falling in Love
“Love suffers long and is kind.” 1 Corinthians 13:4
“Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.’ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and… they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” Genesis 29:18-20
Have you ever been in love with someone? I suspect that when you started talking to this person on your first date or encounter you didn’t say to yourself “I’m going to fall in love with this person.” Now it sometimes happens that you are aware of the goodness or attractiveness of the other person on a first date. For example, Alice’s first date was quite excellent. They talked for hours and of course there was some smooching in there too. And Alice went home and told her family that her guy was the man she was going to marry. But she did not say she had fallen in love with him. That would take a while longer.
Love is not premeditated, calculated or preplanned. It is spontaneous. It bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There are lots of things, besides falling in love, that cannot be premeditated of preplanned. For example, we cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by simply stating: “Now I will never think any evil thoughts and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe.” On Hal’s first visit to one of the churches he used to attend years ago he was not sure what he believed. He had just gone to that church because of the urging of a friend of his. One of the ministers told him “We love Jesus here.” He was not comfortable with all that Jesus talk and was not thrilled about that statement. But he liked the music and the sermon was pretty good so he kept going to the church. It was three or four years of hearing sermons, singing songs, interacting with guys in a men’s group and reading the Bible before he was ready to have a personal relationship with Jesus. But when it happened it seemed to have happened suddenly and without preplanning.
The characteristic of love is spontaneity. For some people who were baptized as an the baptism itself might be the moment of rebirth. Or perhaps an inspirational message by a gifted preacher prompted a feeling of falling in love with God or Jesus. I have heard people tell their stories of being reborn. They speak of getting goosebumps or shedding tears, and I have heard one person say she had the excitement and fervor similar to when she fell in love with her husband. Many people say they will never forget that moment. I think that was because the Holy Spirit was having his way with them. When the Holy Spirit has his way with us we start living according to his standards and his wishes for us without realizing it.
A friend of mine told me recently about a feeling he had about his church and the people there. He said it was as if he was part of an organism, that he felt like he knew with certainty that he was joined and enmeshed with this community. He went on to say he felt connected to other Christians as well, as if he was breathing with them and was part of a body, the church body. He explained that he did not calculate that he would feel this way or that he would come to this realization, he just knew it with certainty all of a sudden. As he related his story, I realized that this was not him. It was the Holy Spirit. For this man this seemed to be a spontaneous moment of love and breathtaking bonding. I thought to myself that the Holy Spirit was having his way with him. He said he was totally unconcerned with his emotions or opinions.
It Is this kind of tumbling, this kind of crashing that is the very evidence of real spontaneous love. Oswald Chambers says this: “The nature of everything involved with the life of God in us is only discerned when we have already been through it and it is in our past.” Having read stories of people’s experiencing so close to another, the realization of the experience came after they had already gone through it. Chambers says that the “fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. God’s love is there only because, quote: “it has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” as Paul said in Romans 5:5.
If we try to prove to God how much we love him, it is a sure sign that we really don’t love him. The evidence of our love for God is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from God’s nature within us and not our own nature.
A man ran into a burning building to rescue the people there and he did this without thinking, without calculating the costs and benefits. That is he did it out of spontaneous love. And later when people asked him how or why he did it. He simply said: I don’t know.
The Danger of Complacency
“For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;” - Proverbs 1:3 ESV
The other day I was in an nearby city. I was trying to decide where to go for a meal. My first thought was a famous pancake house because I love their blueberry pancake combo with eggs and hashbrowns. But I have been trying to lose weight upon the urging of my doctor. I have been doing pretty good on my eating patterns. And I was telling myself, “Glenn you’ve been a good boy – you’re are only five pounds from your goal weight.”
I was feeling comfortable with my progress. Comfortable. I might as well say what I was feeling: complacent. My guard was down, my thoughts of eating less sugar and less food in general were gone out of my mind. I relaxed my vigilance and took up my old patterns of self-talk -- “Oh, you are tired and real hungry, you deserve to treat yourself. It’s okay. It’s okay! ” Besides me talking to myself in my head, who does that sound like to you? The devil! Satan might be on my shoulder, but he’s got a real good partner who is inside of me sitting comfortably in my brain. Pride, whose alias is ego. My pride is the main instrument of the devil in my personality. For years the familiar refrain in my brain has been:
It’s okay Glenn,
go ahead my boy,
it’s just a tiny little sin
you deserve to enjoy!
The first phrase of that Proverb 1:3 is: “For the simple” – SIMPLE! It’s so simple. Just do what you’re used to doing. Eat what you feel like eating. As usual, I fell back on my usual pattern of following my feelings. Now that is not always a bad thing, for I think the Holy Spirit sometimes uses our feelings to boost inspiration or motivation in us.
But when the feelings are attached to a bad habit, they can be dangerous and, as the rest of that Proverb goes on to say, they can trip you up with “the complacency of fools.” When I become too comfortable with my progress toward righting my wrongs, it is almost inevitable that I am headed for a fall. The final phrase of that Proverb is: “destroys them.” Depending on the degree of harm of a habit, it can end in death, either physical death or spiritual death.
Let me list a few bad habits
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Too much television watching or computer screen time, especially right before going to sleep can alert and stimulate the mind when the need is to start coming down and letting go of stuff that activates our minds and keeps us from going to sleep or things that will interrupt our sleep. Too much of the silver screen can lead to eating fast food, weight gain, and sleep deprivation.
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Another bad habit: dwelling on the past. We can’t change the past no matter how much we think about it. Replaying the past can make us feel anxious, worried, fearful, or depressed.
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Lashing out at people or conjuring up insults from others. The stress of the daily grind takes a toll and can lead to anger and resentment. We probably need to ask ourselves, What events triggered the emotion? Maybe silence is a good thing especially if it takes us away from, for example, watching too much football on TV. Now I love football and I know how hard it is to stop the action of a game and be silent for a few seconds but I have also noticed that sometimes watching football makes me tense and tired – especially if my team is losing.
Addictions are very bad habits that affect the power to think, make decisions and also affects patterns of behavior. And we know the horrible toll of addictions of all kinds, how they can lead to divorce, bankruptcy or even suicide. So, the Proverb advising us to avoid complacency is warning us that it can keep us from God, and away from following Jesus. Perhaps the best way to avoid complacency and self-satisfaction: Asking ourselves if this is bringing me closer to Jesus.
Finally, in Romans 12: 1-5, Paul says
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Christ Alive Here
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"Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on things human nature desires; those who live in the spirit have their minds on spiritual things… while the spirit looks forward to life and peace.”
(Romans 8:5-6)
This passage is not saying that it is wrong to be human. When someone messes up, we say, “Well, he’s only human.” However, being human is not a sin. Listen to this particular human’s verse:
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” Emily Dickenson
Here’s another you might have heard:
“Before you act, listen. Before you read, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try.” Ernest Hemmingway
I think both verses are inspired writing. But both were written by fallible, limited human people. I would imagine that the verses came to them in a moment of stirring and creativity. Creativity is defined as the ability to create. Maybe it would be better to say the ability to co-create, because I believe these moments come when people allow themselves to be in the freedom of Christ’s grace. [1] They are allowing themselves to let the Creator come alive in them.
I had seen pictures of the Grand Canyon but I remember the first time I saw the actual Grand Canyon. It was breathtaking. I literally gasped with inspiration. Inspiration – “In-spire” means to breathe in.
In Romans 8:9-11 Paul says this:
“You however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the spirit since the Spirit of God has made a home in you… and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, the one who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.”
Of course, in my human nature, I have often run away from God in Christ and tried to escape his Spirit’s work in me. But listen to how Paul explains why. He says “The law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free…” That is, we are given freedom by Christ. In Romans 7 Paul made it clear, to me anyway, that alone I am lost.
If I depend only on myself, on my mind and my body, my human nature will eventually lead me into darkness, disconnectedness, and spiritual death. Romans chapter eight, however, shifts the mood from disillusionment, to life and freedom. The life of the Spirit in our hearts as Christians means that The Spirit of Christ turns on the lights. Or to put it another way, he turns on the spigot of grace. If I allow it, Christ is alive in me. Of course, that’s a big if. I can do all kinds of things that block me from Christ’s life in me. For example, something as simple as cleaning the cat boxes. I can do that in a spirit of resentment and anger – OR - I can do it in the Spirit of Christ. It is my choice.
When we draw on our creative selves, we are opening ourselves to glorify God by what he has inspired us to do – even if we aren’t aware of it. In fact, creativity can be a prayer or worship. And the creative process is valuable even if the result is not a saleable product. The creative process itself is not a commodity – some THING to be sold. We should honor our creativity by using it for good, by allowing ourselves to experience the Spirit as we write, paint, or sculpt, as we raise our children, do our jobs, or write a letter to a loved one. The Spirit delights in us when we surrender to the creativity he has inspired. We are made in the image of God. Let us rejoice and be glad in that, and in our creative work.
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[1] I am not referring to saving grace, but to common grace which is given by God to both believers and non-believers.
Being Bold
“I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.” 2 Corinthians 7:4
The Acts of the Apostles tells about Paul’s travels. It really would be an understatement to say Paul occasionally took a trip. As if he were merely going from Neapolis to Philippi and back. No, the word trip is a very weak description of what Paul did. Instead we speak of Paul’s Missionary Journeys. Paul didn’t merely travel from Neapolis to Philippi, he went from Antioch across Asia minor through Turkey and up to Europe – and then down to Athens Greece and on he went over to this place called Corinth. Now, folks, that’s a journey!
But the other thing I think of when I think of Paul and his movement is the word boldness. For example, in Ephesus there was a huge uproar when the Christians were speaking of a living God as opposed to the handmade gods that silversmiths and many craftsmen were making loads of money from.
Those craftsmen and sellers were very upset with these Christians talking about a God that was alive in them, a God who created the whole world. They got a crowd together and fomented anger among them so much that they were taking Paul’s traveling companions to trial -- and Paul wanted to go in and help defend them, but his disciples wisely held him back. They knew the crowd was under the force of emotional craziness and that things would not end well for Paul.
But this is just one small example of Paul’s boldness. He displayed incredible courage, determination, and fortitude throughout all his journeys. He was a bold guy. But his boldness was not just a virtue. He made it crystal clear that his energy came from the Holy Spirit. That is pretty clear to me as I read about Paul: I looked at the map of his journeys, I read his writings like the opening scripture from his second letter to the Corinthians “I am acting with great boldness toward you,” he said.
Now personally, boldness is a characteristic I exhibit only in small doses. I am proud of myself if I’m bold enough to do my back exercises three times a week. I could blame this lack of boldness on my advancing age and I am sure I often do. But if I am honest, it is also because I only allow the Holy Spirit to impel me a little bit here and a little bit there. When I compare myself to Paul, I look puny.
But I am encouraged by the 18th chapter of Acts in which it became clear that Paul relied on two lay people, Priscilla and Aquila, for assistance. It is also clear that many pastors rely on us laymen and laywomen, we saints of the church, to do our part, to step up.
But I think God wants more from us. I can see that the Holy Spirit is spreading his grace upon many churches. But I also know that many church members, including me, have not been particularly bold.
I don’t think I always believe in the church like I should. But that is because my faith is not as strong as it needs to be. It is not about me believing in US. It is about me believing in God to use us, to take care of us, to grow and revitalize us. That is my challenge of faith ---- God is ready.
I hope we are all ready to be bold in our expectations of our churches and of what God can do in them. I getting older, but I’ll tell you --- sometimes I feel like a child because I still have so much to learn, and a such long way to go.
I have become quite at home in my church community, but what I have to remind myself of is “don’t get too comfortable.” I am into comfort to the point that it is seems to be a weakness.
I am reading a book by Tom Rainer and he tells of a pastor who said that at one time he led from a posture of either fear of failure or fear of conflict and how that kept him from being a good leader.
I am grateful for pastors who lead with boldness, who do not let any fears they have keep them from believing in their people and in the Holy Spirit.
I think those same fears that I have heard numerous leaders confess can keep Christinas from believing in what God can do and is doing in the church. I hope we can step up and step out in faith like Pricsilla and Aquila did and
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be bold in our expectations and courage,
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be bold in our belief that the Holy Spirit is here now and ready for us to latch on to his bright lasso, and let him take us to the next level – wherever that is. -
“I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.” That’s how Paul said it to the Corinthians, and I think that is what he would say to me… to us ion our churches.