Author: Danny Panter

Danny is the Associate Pastor for NextGen Marrieds & Community Missions at FBCSA.

Friends, Pt. 2

Re:Verse Passage – John 15:9-17 (day six)

This is an important question: what is the basis of our friendship with Jesus? Are we friends because we obey His commands? Do we earn Jesus’ friendship because of our meritorious behavior? Sometimes we can behave as if this is true. We lapse in our worship attendance, so we think, “If I return to worship I will find favor with God again”, or “If I get a few quiet times under my belt then Jesus will like me.”

That is not the Gospel; it’s heresy. We are friends because Christ first loved us (vs. 12) by laying down his life; we are friends because of His work, not ours. Obedience then is not the condition of friendship but the affirmation or confirmation of our friendship with Jesus.

Listen, you don’t have to earn Jesus’ love or His friendship; He has already loved you, He died on the cross for you. The cure for disobedience is not trying harder, but repentance and returning to your first love or remaining in His love; believing in the work of Jesus through which he calls you friend. We always obey whom (or what) we believe; believe in Jesus!

Benefactor

Re: Verse reading–John 13:1-17 (day six)

Peter meant to honor Jesus by saying, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus knew that of course; he knew Peter’s intent, it’s just that he had everything backwards. Unless Jesus serves us, we are nothing, and we have nothing. He would tell them this much just two chapters later, “…apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Peter would even write many years later, “whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies.” 1 Peter 4:11 So, even when we do serve others we are able to not by any merit or strength of our own but by God’s. Jesus is always the benefactor; he is always the giver.

What this means, is that our acts of service towards others are not repayment, as if we are trying to repay Jesus for what He has done, but they are an expression of our identity in Jesus, our new DNA. The outcome is clear, people declare “look, he must be Jesus’ disciple.” Paul said it like this, “I am crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, but Christ Jesus lives in me.”

Smitten

Re: Verse reading–Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53 (day six)

“…yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God.”-The People, Isaiah 53:4b

In the ancient Hebrew mind (and even now with the prosperity gospel) suffering comes to the unfaithful. The verse above is a confession; the people believed that the suffering servant was receiving what He deserved, that He was being punished by God. The irony is, they were exactly right but for all the wrong reasons. God did punish Him (Isaiah 53 says so more than once.) but not because of His unfaithfulness, but rather for theirs. Their sin (and ours) required justice and God would provide it through the suffering of His righteous servant. That’s Good News.

Moving Mountains

Re:Verse reading–Nehemiah 6:1-16 (day six)

Faith moves mountains, but most often it uses a shovel. There was nothing magical about Nehemiah’s faith in God’s promises to his people. He repented, prayed, strategized, stayed the course; he used a shovel to put his faith into action. For Nehemiah faith was not merely an intellectual exercise, but it was action, decisive steps to move forward the promises of God. But that is how faith works, it never stays in one place, it moves according to the rhythms of the promises of God.

Does your faith move? Does it carry a shovel?

Breathe

Re:Verse reading–2 Kings 4:8-37 (day six)

Much like the Good Samaritan Elisha turns aside from his journey to meet a desperate need. There was nothing convenient about it; the diversion took time, energy, and resources. Elisha didn’t do it because it was convenient or easy, but because it’s what prophets do; it’s what servant leaders do. Servant leaders go out of their way to breathe life into others. It’s there in those moments when the miraculous can happen, the dead come to life. It is also there that you discover it wasn’t a diversion, it was the intended destination after all.

So, don’t be so quick to NOT turn aside, take the diversion into someone’s need and breathe. God might just use you to bring them back to life.

Power

Re:Verse reading–2 Samuel 9 (day six)

Where did David find the power to be kind? Well, he was king, he had the ability, the resources, and the will to extend kindness to anyone he chose, even to an enemy. You are no king or queen, but do you have the power to be kind? Yes, you do. As David drew from his kingly position, so you too, Christian, draw from your royal position. We are adopted heirs to the Kingdom of God, sons and daughters of the King. We muster kindness not from broken cisterns, but from the infinitely deep wells of the kindness of God. Because of who we are we too have the ability, the resources, and the will to extend kindness, even to the least likely of people.

When you drink deeply of the kindness of God as a child of God, you can’t help but extend kindness to others.

Not Always What or Where, but Who

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 3 (day six)

Don’t we all wish God would just speak to us out loud! He is of course; He is always talking to us through His written Word. In fact as one writer wrote, “If you want to hear God’s voice, read the Bible out loud.” Often though we seek answers to questions that God isn’t answering directly, like, “Where should I go to college?” or “What job should I take?” or “Who should I marry?” These are all great questions of course and should be asked, but most of the time God is more interested in the kind of person you should be when you get to that college, or land that job, or get married to that person.

God is always talking to us if we are willing to listen, and His words are always intended to shape who we are wherever we find ourselves. So, instead of asking “where” or “what” questions start asking “who;” if we can hear God’s answer (in His Word), often enough the answers to the other questions will fall into place.

Ancestors

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 11:10-32 (day six)

Did you know that Shem is one of our spiritual forefathers? It’s true. The line of Shem runs straight to Jesus, and then extends to His church. This genealogy is a reminder that God is at work fulfilling what He has promised- the destruction of sin and death, and the restoration of humanity. We are the recipients of that fulfilled promise through Jesus, while God is also completing His Kingdom work through us . We are the light of the world, salt of the earth, image bearers of the glory of God displayed in us through the Gospel.

We share in a rich heritage of Kingdom fulfillment! Here is the exciting news, the church by the power of the Gospel will conclude what God started so long ago!

Own your spiritual heritage! Continue the Gospel work!

Glory

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 11:1-9 (day six)

Pastor Don has already written on the difference between the unity depicted in Genesis 11 and the kind prescribed for the church in John 17:21-23, but I can’t help but have a go too. It is clear that humanity’s aim in Genesis 11 is glory, not God’s but their own. They sought to make a name for themselves by building a tall tower that stretched to the heavens; ironically they fell short (don’t excuse the pun). God looked down upon their small tower and fractured their ill-aimed pursuit.

The truth is we are not designed to display our own glory, we are designed to receive a greater glory. Jesus prayed in John 17:22, “The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one.” Isn’t that remarkable? Humanity in Genesis 11 had it all wrong; they had no need to contrive a glory of their own, they only had to receive God’s glory by faith. Perhaps that is exactly what God intended when he made us in his image, and perhaps that is exactly what Jesus restores through the Gospel-God’s glory given to us!

Invitation into Bigness

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 10 (day six)

God is engaged in both the big and small of history. Genesis 10 is a keen reminder of that truth. He is always advancing the bigness of His Kingdom, while “walking” with the small, i.e. Enoch. But it is the bigness that God wants us to see here; that He is a God of nations not only the individual. This is an important reminder for us. In a culture that epitomizes the individual (even Church culture), God reminds us not to lose sight of what he is doing in the world by being enamored by the self. Even more he invites us, indeed commands us, out of our enamored-self into the bigness of his Kingdom work. It’s a blessing! It is there where we realize the Old Testament words that Jesus quoted, “Love your neighbor as your self.”