Category: Devotions

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, author of “Made for Goodness” was answering readers questions in the TIME magazine.

 Q: After all you’ve seen and endured, are you really as optimistic as your book, ‘Made for Goodness’, says you are?

 Tutu: I’m not optimistic, no. I’m quite different. I’m hopeful. I am a prisoner of hope. In the world, you have very bad people—Hitler, Idi Amin—and they look like they are going to win. All of them—all of them—have bitten the dust.

For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, Ephesians 5 v9

David referred to himself as a flea on two occasions, a dead dog and a worm.

Moses looked at himself and said he was not up to the task.

Gideon believed he was the weakest.

The list can go on. It seems every Bible hero had to get rid of the worthless things that were clinging to them, that had become the focus of their life and the shaper.

We need to stop thinking negatively, either about ourselves or circumstances. We need to think about our purpose in this world and about Him.

We have a Good Shepherd, Good News and we should be the Good Samaritan. Goodness is the trait of the kingdom of light.

If you have given out more than you have received back then you are venturing into the Goodness.

There needs to be loss in your life for Goodness to emerge.

The loss of loving someone who doesn’t return that love.

The loss of helping those who just take.

Loss because there is no hope of getting anything back from your kindness and generosity.

When you question whether it was worth it; when you ask whether you have been taken for a ride; when you see nothing from your acts of kindness it is then when you are bordering on the entrance of Goodness.

Goodness is a life where you look like God, especially in front of your enemies. They may be ungrateful and they may not recognise what you do but He sees. God can see you identify with Him for this is who He is and what He has done and does today.

So if today you meet that awkward, self-centred, seemingly unavoidable person then be kind. Lose. Be like God and then step into Goodness.

Madam X is an Elim Church planter in an Islamic nation. One Saturday in September 2016 having never been told the truth about Jesus she began to meditate on a verse from the Quran in Surah 1:6 “Guide us in the right path”. Suddenly in the corner of the room a ‘bright light’ filled the room as Jesus revealed His identity to her. She fell to the floor and her life was never the same again! This was noon, it was light, but THE light was so much brighter.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. Ephesians 5 v 8

I have heard first-hand accounts from many who have met Christ and every one of them saw a bright light. The light of Christ is more than just shining brightly in the darkness, any light can do that, but it shines brightly at noon, in the light. That is bright! Christ can penetrate the light, any light. He is brighter than the mid-day sun.

I have been reading of an Afghan woman explaining to a correspondent that the women who continue to wear burqas (the full-body coverings mandated by the Taliban) do so even though they don’t like them and are no longer forced to wear them because: “We have lived in darkness for so long that now we are afraid of the light.”

Some today even though they may have faith cannot see the stars in the sky. They are unable to see the sunrises that happen every day. They only see clouds not the sun, not even the rays through the clouds. The lights have gone out. Actually the light is there, but they cannot see it.
Today come out from the darkness, forgive and let go where that is needed, trust the God of light again. Do not be afraid to change. Do not be afraid to step into the light. He is waiting for you. He has not stopped shining.

When was the last time someone corrected you? What did you do about it?

Therefore do not be partners with them. Ephesians 5 v 7

Who are you hanging around with? (From the Message version).

Don’t let it be with deceptive people.

Choose your friends carefully. Who are you walking with?

We don’t need to hang around people who tickle our ears and who sympathise with our lack.

We need friends who will not deceive us but who are not afraid to speak the truth to us.

Western Christianity is so individualistic. We have our own walk with God, we hear God individually and we make decisions alone. But not so in other parts of the world where community is powerful and decisions are made as a group. Perhaps this is the way it should be. Maybe there would be less mistakes made if others advised us.

It is never too late to bring into your life accountability partners who will continually ask you “Why do you think, speak and behave this way?”

An unchecked, unquestioned man is not a strong man. Strength is not in what you can amass, or the people around you, it is not in a title or a position. It is whether or not you have been bridled.

If you see a destructive flaw in your friend’s life and say nothing then you are no friend.

I had just finished preaching a short series of 4 messages from Malachi and living a life of holiness, when the 2 friends came to see me in my office. “Pastor you are too severe, all this talk of holiness. We are leaving the Church.” Six months later the friends had fallen out with each other and it came to light that they were living an immoral lifestyle.”

The deceivers were trying to mislead me.

Having shared a list of sins (and there will be more) the Apostle says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” Ephesians 5 v 6

Who are the deceivers? It is those people who come and lead you away from the Apostle’s teaching. They will demonstrate that to use people for gain is a blessing; to grab for the riches which do not belong to them is to be rewarded by God; they come with attractive large personalities but it is just a shell of emptiness; their words sound good but they end up being powerless dialogue.

Not everything that you see and hear is what you think you see and hear.

Not every friend is a friend because of what they can bring some are friends for what you can make them.

“No one” are usually “Someone” They are usually good with words, respected leaders perhaps, they may have a following, but it doesn’t make it right.

“No one” can be “Everyone” and there can be a consensus of opinion, but it doesn’t make it right.

The problem is when deception has struck it is hard to see it is deception. The deceived don’t know they are deceived till it is too late.

That is why we tread carefully in the light of God’s wrath which was poured out onto Christ on the cross. We walk in the light of that surrender.

If we live not to gain then we will not be deceived.

The rule of Christ, the sphere of His activity, the realm and presence of God, the Kingdom, only has citizens who have lived for others.

“You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them—the usual variations on idolatry—will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.” Ephesians 5 v 5

The Apostle is very firm on this, “For of this you can be sure” if your life on earth is about you then you will not come into the Kingdom. You may be religious but if your faith is about you becoming someone then forget it. If your focus is not to serve and to help but to get and to gain because you are not thankful for what you have received then forget it. You may think you are in the Kingdom and you may think you will come into it but forget it, you won’t. Others may think you are in the Kingdom because of your personality and charisma but forget it, they are of no help.

You cannot grab what you think you deserve and hold the hand of a God who is generous.

You cannot use people and expect God to use you.

You cannot be a big man and have a big God.

These will get you nowhere.

You may think you are in but you are definitely out.

So how do you get into this Kingdom of Christ and of God?

It is obvious isn’t it? Just look at those words in bold.

God loves and God sends, Christ came and Christ is crucified.

Selfless citizens of the Kingdom.

Michael Jackson sung a deeply profound truth when he said – ‘I’m starting with that man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer, if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make that change.’

Do we want to make our world a better place?

Yes we cry! We just need to change our world. That’s not the gospel of Michael Jackson nor is it of Timothy Keller. He tweeted recently – “Revival occurs when those who think they already know the gospel discover they do not really or fully know it. This leads to repentance and change.”

The Apostle having told them to put off the immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talking and coarse joking now says put on thanksgiving.

Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. Ephesians 5 v 4

The word for thanksgiving is eucharistia where we get our Lord’s Supper/Eucharist from.

How many times have we taken communion but we have not been truly thankful?

An old man is on the pier feeding the seagulls, they land all around him, on his shoulders, his hat, feeding off what he had in his bag. Why is this man doing this? Why does he come here every week?
The man is Eddie Rickenbacher, a famous pilot in World War 2. His plane the “Flying Fortress” was shot down in 1942 and no one thought he would be rescued. He and eight passengers survived in 2 rafts for 30 days. They fought thirst, the sun and sharks some of which were 9 feet long. But what nearly killed them was starvation, within 8 days they had no more food left.
But in these rafts they would have a daily devotion to God. One day after a devotion Rickenbacher leaned back with his hat over his eyes to get some sleep. Within a few moments he felt something land on his hat. He knew in an instant it was a seagull. They were hundreds of miles from land, where had it come from? In an instant he grabbed the seagull. They all ate the bird and the intestines they used as fish bait. Rickenbacher never forgot that sacrifice. Every week he went to the pier to feed the seagulls, to say thank you.

We have no choice but to bring thanksgiving, it comes from the sacrifice. His sacrifice of love forces such a response.
When you know you are saved you are thankful.

Thankfulness is missing

• When we are arguing over what we feel is rightfully ours.
• When we do not like our circumstances.
• When we devalue people because we hold them responsible for our circumstances.
• When we are dismissive of people as not helpful to the change of our circumstances.
• When the gospel story is not played out in our lives.

Today give thanks, say it, to God, to someone, to you.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 

I am not sure who Jack was, but he worked all the time and he was dull.

“Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place,” Ephesians 5 v 4

Again the word only occurs here in the New Testament, eutrapelia, joking.

Have you ever met a Christian who looks like they have never laughed in their life?

Their joy is deep not shallow like ours. It is deep joy. Beyond facial recognition into the deepest recesses of their heart. So deep that only they can see it. They are the barometers of joy. They are fellowship-busters. The ones who turn the lights off and pull the music because nothing good happens after 9pm. They are frivolous-finishers. The decorum brigade. One of my first Annual General Meetings a Church member stood up during question time and gave an opinion, “You are too frivolous Pastor.” I wasn’t actually sure what frivolous meant so it didn’t really hurt me. I hadn’t taken the module on that at Bible College. But I did realise this man wasn’t for too much of anything really.

Throughout history the Church has had appeals to lighten up. To not be so serious. Aquinas, a disciple of Aristotle said, “just as the body needs rest when it is weary, so too does the soul when it becomes overburdened.” Some people are so weighed down with burdens of their life that they really do need to laugh. They should watch the film Patch Adams! It is the true story of Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams who was so determined to become a doctor but who ventured along a different path that others hadn’t, that of using humour.

We need to become like children again and learn to dance and play with creation. A child picks up a dandelion and the adult says the truth, ‘hey you’ve not picked up a flower you’ve picked up a weed.’ And the child throws it down not realising the amazing fun-game of blowing through the dandelion and seeing the explosion of the balls of seeds in the air!

The Apostle is not against eutrapelia but against coarse or crude joking set in the sentence of immorality and impurity.

It is wit which is vulgar. Obscene.

The humour-killing fellowship will use this to gauge what is clean and what is not. In many ways they are right as we live in this world we need to be different, we need to stand out, we need to be seen as changed by Christ.

But I think this is more than a joke which has sexual overtones. In the context which Paul says Put off and Put on and which he will be saying put on thankfulness it is so much more than what kind of ‘knock-knock’ jokes you tell. It is about whether your joking is hurtful or destructive to others. It is not just innuendo but it is to ridicule someone. We should be funny but not hurtful. Wit is wonderful but has boundaries called love and grace. It does not make fun at others expense so that it hurts or embarrasses or abuses them. That is coarse, crude, not fitting for you and me.

Morologia is the word that the Apostle uses. It is used only once in the New Testament and it means this: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk … Ephesians 5 v 4

There is a language of the world and a language of the Christian and it needs to be different.

Remember the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. At one point he carries the beautiful maiden high into the towers. They are talking to each other and he begins to weep. She asks him, “What’s wrong?” He replies, “I never knew how ugly I was until I saw how beautiful you are.” The vocabulary of a Christian can expose the empty words of a non-believer.

The words that flow from the Spirit-filled believer is like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16 v24).

When you speak, Jesus speaks. When people listen to you, they listen to Jesus.

Our responsibility is to choose words to use.

• Foolish Words really do count and they can hurt, it is not just sticks and stones.
• Foolish Words that are slurs outweigh the over-sensitivity of people.
• Foolish Words lead to consequences.
• Foolish Words build on sand where nothing of substance is formed.
• Foolish Words come from fools who live to regret their words.

I’m not sure how old I was, maybe 9 or 10 years but I remember exactly where I was and who I was with. I was at the back of the gang of young people and walking with my youth leader up the biggest hill imaginable. The leader asked me how I was doing and then I said a word I had only ever heard the older youth say. (I won’t write it correctly so that anyone reading this cannot write in and complain!), “I am nak-erd”. The leader told me off in such a way that even today I can remember it so well. I had said a word that I hadn’t fully understood which had brought huge offence to him. Strange thing is that 40-50 years later I hear it being said all the time by people with huge Christian respect. Was it obscene? Is it obscene? In my past it seems so.  Even when I’ve used it now as a grown-up adult I feel like a naughty child.

Nor should there be obscenity, Ephesians 5 v 4

Did the Apostle have a list of words which were obscene?

The minister was driving home from the village church, he had been under so much pressure to be all that he should be, but his parishioners were driving him mad! Ahead of him coming from the opposite direction there she was. He could see that member, the one that gave him so much grief, in her fancy car, but she seemed to be slowing down, so he did. As they passed each other the woman rolled down her window and shouted at him, “PIG!!” That was it, the minister had taken enough, how dare she! So as she speeded away he shouted from his window, “FAT OLD COW!!” He sped off too so angry with this member and drove round the bend and crashed head-on into the biggest pig he had ever seen.

Some may think that was a coarse joke which the Apostle also warns about and which we will get to in a couple of days.

It seems that the Bible translators have certainly made the newer versions more palatable to be read in Church.

Can you imagine asking someone to read this in a church service?

“But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?” (Isaiah 36:12 KJV) Maybe we need to be thankful that the translators used the word ‘dung’!

Or what about … “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 23:2 KJV)

I am so pleased that I’ve never had to read such verses! Though I was reminiscing with a friend yesterday how when I was organising his wedding I had chosen a passage from the Song of Songs where the word ‘breasts’ is used and the reader had pleaded that I may change the passage as he didn’t feel comfortable reading the word publicly. I remember preaching my first series from that book to my church and spent most of the week practicing in the mirror saying the word ‘breasts’ over and over again which was quite concerning looking back.

The Apostle says put off obscenity. The word means ‘ugly or filthy’.

Maybe facemasks are not a bad idea?!

In Bible College there was a student who would continually swear during the matches. So after many complaints he came out onto the football pitch wearing a sticking plaster over his mouth!

The filtering of what comes out of our mouth is needed. Jesus said out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Unclean words from our mouth extinguishes the light from the world.

Maybe it is a good thing that the Bible doesn’t supply a list of words and how could it anyway? In any generation and every culture of the world there are words that are culturally acceptable and words that are not. There are words that relate to sexuality or which try to destroy and harm others. They are there, introduced into our language, slang words created by a new generation.

Whatever words are obscene, the Apostle says, don’t use them. Be an example. Be different.

In 1731 John Wesley began to limit his expenses so he would have more money to give to the poor. He records that one year his income was £30, and his living expenses £28, so he had £2 to give away. The next year, his income doubled, but he still lived on £28 and gave £32 away. In the third year, his income jumped to £90; again he lived on £28, giving £62 away. The fourth year, he made £120, lived again on £28, and gave £92 to the poor.

And we wonder why we haven’t seen a revival for a while?!

The Apostle is commanding we put off immorality and impurity and then what seems to be a curve-ball he says greed.

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Ephesians 5:3

The Message has ‘bullying greed’ and other translations use ‘covetousness’.

Here are 7 sins of greed:

1. It’s about me, me and me.
2. It’s about me and having what is yours.
3. It’s about me getting what I want with no thought to the pain I may cause you in getting it.
4. It’s about me not having enough or what me deserves.
5. It’s about me and my ego.
6. It’s about me regardless of any consequences.
7. It’s about me taking short-cuts.

Rick warren of Saddleback Church, America’s 8^th largest Church lives on 10 percent of his income and donates the rest to charity. “I drive a 12-year-old Ford, have lived in the same house for the last 22 years, bought my watch at Wal-Mart, and I don’t own a boat or a jet.” 

Jesus said he had no place to lay his head. We all want an open heaven. Out of that open heaven we want everything we can possibly get, a blessing of finance, promotion, this and that. When Jesus experienced an open heaven as he was standing in the Jordan being baptised he received a bird. We all want to be like Jesus but maybe if all we got was a bird perhaps we would be disappointed!

It’s not about me. Put it off.