Lenten Devotional...March 31

"Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything."

(Hebrews 3:4)

Henry Fisher Builders built our house in Crescent Springs, Kentucky in 1992. Though we never met Mr. Fisher personally, we can vouch for the quality of home his company built. We had heard nightmare stories about building a home, and were quite concerned going into the project about how it would turn out. We were either very fortunate or incredibly naive in the end for the finished product was everything we hoped it would be. The house was finished and closed on time. Mr. Fisher, or at the very least, those who represented him, knew what they were doing.

The writer of today's text acknowledges the capability of human hands to build a house. Those hands have limitations. God, however, is the builder of everything. Here there are no limitations. These hands formed the universe, created human beings from the dust of the earth, and fashioned salvation in the human/divine form of Jesus, the Christ. Human hands could never have created such possibility or opportunity. The human mind could never have devised the plan of redemption that would envision a cross. Human hands created the problem...God fashioned the answer.

Prayer: Creator God, builder of everything, fashion anew my heart in the very image of the Savior, Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Jim Abernathy

Lenten Devotional...March 30

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

(Matthew 22:37-39)

Over the years I have been asked numerous times about my stance, or that of the church I was serving at the time, on a particular issue. Sometimes it was theological, sometimes, social, ethical, or ideological in nature. My answers have not always been satisfactory for those who question. Baptists have traditionally refrained from being painted into that kind of corner for no one person can speak for a body of believers, and no one issue, save faith in Jesus Christ, is salvific in nature. The issues that divide often seem more interesting to us than that which truly unites.

Jesus was asked in our text for today what he believed the greatest commandment in the Law was. His answer was very simple and straightforward...Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. That he identified as the greatest commandment. Then he said that the second is like the first...Love your neighbor as yourself. Among the many theological "hot potatoes" of the day that he could have chosen, he called, instead, those who would listen, to remember the words of old that came from the Levitical code. "Love God and love your neighbor," he was saying. Everything else depends on these two commands.

It would seem that the cross of Christ is evidence of this for Christ came in human form to do the will of his heavenly Father whom he loved, and to lay his life down for a sinful human creation whom he loved as well. Love motivated incarnation and crucifixion...loving God and loving others.

In the midst of a world that argues about many many things, Jesus calls his followers to do two things...love God and love others. That is indeed enough to change the world.

Prayer: We love, because you first loved us, O God. May our love for you empower our love for others around us. Amen.

Jim Abernathy

Lenten Devotional...March 29

"Blessed are those who persevere under trial, because when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."

(James 1:12)

The dictionary defines the term "perseverance" in the following manner..."continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition." That definition doesn't mesh well with our modern sensitivities about perseverance. Ask any man with a remote control in his hand about perseverance and he will define it for you in three to thirty-second flashes across the television screen as he surfs from channel to channel. Ask a young child about his or her favorite toy in the aftermath of Christmas morning's present explosion and he or she will probably move from toy to toy, incapable of choosing a favorite among a sea of possibilities. Ask a golfer if he wants take another try after hitting three balls in a row into the water, and he will most likely choose to take a drop on the other side.

Perseverance is not an easy task..."continued effort...despite difficulties, failure, or opposition." The temptation to give up, to let go of something because it is difficult is very real in the context of our life circumstances. "Life's too short," we say as if that justifies our inability or inattentiveness to persevere in times of trial.

Jesus knew that his path led to the cross. He knew he would be forsaken by his friends. He knew the weight of a sinful world would fall upon him, but he continued on toward Jerusalem. He persevered, despite the temptations to turn and run. James encouraged first-century Christians to persevere in trial, to stand firm in times of testing, for to do so is to know the promise of God, the crown of life through faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Life is short, but perseverance marks the person of faith who trusts the Lord, despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.

Prayer: Faithful God, strengthen our resolve, help us persevere, not as a mark of human stubbornness or strength, but as a testimony to our trust in you. In the name of the One who joyfully endured the cross, Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Jim Abernathy

Lenten Devotional...March 28

"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing."

(I Peter 3:9)

Jesus was known for his turn-around teaching...you know, the kind of teaching that presented a completely opposite perspective than conventional belief or practice. In the sermon on the mount in Matthew's gospel, he would say, "You have heard it said....but I say..." Peter picks up on this theme in our text today, reminding his readers that the teachings of Christ are meant to transform even the most challenging aspects of human relationship.

Conventional wisdom would challenge someone wounded by the insults of others to respond in like kind. The world is certainly familiar with this kind of behavior. Wars have been started, friendships fractured, businesses compromised, and churches distracted from their mission when retaliation is chosen as a response to the harmful actions of others. In the turnaround teaching pattern of Jesus, Peter challenges early Christians to repay evil with blessing. Talk about catching an enemy or adversary off guard! Who trades blessing for evil? That simply isn't done!

And yet, it has been done...isn't that the turnaround teaching of the cross? Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (TNIV) Paul argues that most of us wouldn't lay down our lives for a truly good person, much less for a person who was at odds with us. But the demonstration of love God set forth at the cross, turns around our thinking, for Jesus died for a human creation that had identified itself as the enemy of God. Jesus took up the cross and willingly embodied this turn around teaching, punctuating his point by his broken body and shed blood in the very presence of his enemies.

Peter tells us that to follow Christ's example is to "inherit a blessing." That is the turn around hope for a fractured world...it begins with you and me.

Prayer: Turn around our thinking, dear Lord, that we may love, not as convention expects, but rather, as love dictates. This we pray in the name of the turnaround teacher, Jesus, the Christ, Amen.

Jim Abernathy

Lenten Devotional...March 27

"If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you."

(Psalm 130:3-4)

Have you ever known someone who kept a record of all your failures? Most likely, they didn't have an actual book or ledger they turned to in listing your faults. They probably didn't need one...they had them all memorized, color-coded, easily placed in the forefront of their thinking where you were concerned, ready to remind you at a moment's notice of the things you had done wrong. Perhaps you have known such a person who felt it was his or her responsibility to keep you in your place, constantly reminding you about the things you have done wrong. Self-esteem is not their concern.

If anyone has a right to keep record of human failure, it would be God. As Creator, God has endured the continuing rebellion of his human creation. That rebellion has cost God deeply. One would understand if the halls of heaven were filled with seemingly unending volumes of sin records with the name of every person and every sin ever committed listed there. It would make for some interesting, if not damning reading.

The Psalmist, however, paints a different picture in our text today. God's record-keeping could produce unbearable burden for the individual and for the entire human race, yet, God seems not to be interested in the sordid details of our sin. With God, the Psalmist says, "there is forgiveness." One of the great tragedies of our human experience is that we too often seem consumed with what God is willing to forget. We confront ourselves and others again and again with our, and their failures, all the while diminishing the value of what God has created.

Hope will never be found in the keeping of sinful lists...hope will always be found in the forgiving and forgetting grace of God.

Prayer: For your forgiveness that erases my sinful record, I give you thanks, O God. Amen.

Jim Abernathy

Lenten Devotional...March 26

He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes

one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

(Mark 9:36-37)

The words of our text today follow an argument among Jesus' disciples. The argument centered around who was greatest among them. Jesus responds to their foolishness by saying, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all." He then places a child among his childish disciples and tells them that to welcome a child is to welcome him.

Jesus was constantly turning the tables on the values of the world around him. Children held little value in a society that revered age and wisdom. To place a child in the middle of their argument was to call these arrogant men to humility, servanthood, and most importantly, Christlikeness.

Arrogance has no place at the cross. One cannot take up the cross of Christ and be concerned about his or her position among others. The TNIV rendering of verse thirty-five emphatically places the servant as "...the very last, and the servant of all." Christ was willing to position himself as the very last. Why would we argue to place ourselves in any other position?

Prayer: Christ, who made yourself the very last, may we follow your example to be servant of all. Amen.

Jim Abernathy

Lenten Devotional...March 25

"Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat of their delicacies."

Psalm 141:4

The Psalmist rightly speaks of temptations as "delicacies." Often, the very things we know not to do, draw us like magnets. Of temptation, Paul wrote in Romans 7:19, "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." The writers, Paul and David, both remind us of our own struggles with temptation. Oscar Wilde, nineteenth-century Irish playwright, once wrote of his own struggles, "I can resist everything but temptation." His struggle is our struggle. Our hope, however, comes in knowing that there is help beyond ourselves through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we can overcome temptation because Christ has overcome. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin." (Hebrews 4:15) There will always be temptation...but let us remember that there is also always help to resist.

Prayer: Gracious God, give me strength to resist the "delicacies" of temptation in the name of Jesus, the Christ, Amen.

Jim Abernathy