Today’s scripture reading takes me to a verse that has been a promise given to me 50+ years ago while I was in early high school. It is I Corinthians 10:13. It says: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

When I was first introduced to this scripture I remember thinking that this is the promise God is giving me that all of my brother’s sexual abuse could be endured. God would provide a way out and that would be when I left home to go to college. I’d endure it until then. At this point it was about sin done to me. But, then as I was physically/sexually developing I started having sexual thoughts which would sometimes go down a path of homosexuality as well as heterosexuality. The scripture said “common to man”. Well, this certainly didn’t seem common to anyone except my brother and now me. Instead of addressing this, I pushed it aside and lived with the part of the scripture I could draw strength from.

Most of my life I found this scripture mysterious rather than helpful. Things like, “I wouldn’t be tempted beyond what I could bear just didn’t seem true or finding a way out never happened. Once I got to college, yes, the physical & sexual abuse had ended but I was trapped in a world of secrets, confusion and beliefs about myself that scared me to death. All I could think to do was: do good, be good and hope for the best.

What I’ve come to understand about God’s promise in this scripture is where the promise resides. The strength to do all the scripture tells is in the spiritual realm. That is where sin was conquered. I wanted God to give me physical/mental strength to fight this battle and then I’d plead with Him to remove the temptation since the temptations wouldn’t go away. In order for me to access the strength of the promise I had to surrender my efforts of fighting to things like: confess the temptation, call my accountability, walk away from the setting where the temptation is taking place. This thing didn’t need physical/mental strength, the temptation needed me to surrender my pride and confess the truth of it to someone I trust. In so doing, God’s promise comes true. The temptation flees as Satan can’t stand in the presence of God’s Light. This step of obedience allowed God’s Light to penetrate the darkness of the temptation. I’ve also learned that this action on my part isn’t a one time thing. It needs to happen each time the temptations arise.

Is this common to man? Good grief, I don’t know of a single man who doesn’t fight sinful battles. Each one of us has to learn to surrender and give up our pride so we can see the miraculous work of God’s promises come true.!

By the time I finish my devotional time each morning my goal is to have found my grounding for the day in Christ Jesus. I’m ready to go into the day remembering I’m a new creation and everything is surrendered. This way I don’t take care of whatever I do in my own thinking/actions. Instead, my actions reflect what God is intending.

Well, this morning, what I find at this point in my day is my humanness. I awoke irritated and trying to focus my mind on the devotional reading and bible reading was a real chore. I asked God in my journaling what was wrong with me? It is amazing when His response is immediate and clear. He said, “it is physical in that your day yesterday triggered all your allergies to dust, and it was emotional in that your day challenged the orderliness in which you like to do any work you do.” Boy, did He nail it!

My humanness has been screaming at me this morning which is exactly what happens to me internally when my allergies are out of control. My body seems as though everything is on edge. Now that I recognize it, I can address it and surrender it.

God’s purpose for our lives is steadfast. I want my commitment to Him to also be steadfast even though a morning like today hits me. Now that I recognize what this is, I can work through it and be a better person doing so.

As our world has been brought to almost a halt in so many ways from this pandemic, I’ve pondered at times what message God has in this? Regardless of the consequences, I find myself quickly being pulled into the needs of the day or just things which may or may not be needs. Nonetheless, I almost forget momentarily that the world is in crisis. Then, I go out into it and see masks, distancing, no touching, closed signs on so many places, etc. I’m quickly reminded of the crisis.

In my devotions/journaling I asked God for insights on His purposes for this time? It seemed as though He was reminding me of Elijah. During the time of Elijah the prophet on this earth, he encountered many threatening events. A very dramatic one was when he’d told King Ahab there would be a drought. After 3 years the country was in crisis. Elijah challenged the gods of Israel with his own sacrifice. The outcome was rain and the killing of all the priests of the false gods. Jezebel told Elijah she would have his head for this. Elijah fled and finally ended at Mt. Horeb. It is there Elijah hears from God. There were several crises which took place: wind, earth shaking, fire–none of which were the voice of God. Afterwards, Elijah heard the “still small voice of God”. In my journaling it was as though God were telling me that the crises of today are not His Voice. His Voice is heard when we quit listening to the crisis and turn our ears to Him.

In Oswald Chamber’s writings he says that God doesn’t send us to save the world, that is His Work. He sends us to “make disciples of the nations….” Matthew 28:19. All of this reminded me that this is one of those times when the events of the world are bringing man to his knees. I want to listen well to God’s still small voice to know when I need to respond and how to do so. It seems disciples are ready to be made.

I awoke today before morning did! It’s a couple weeks early for planting my deck pots, but the weather outlook doesn’t predict any freezing nights and I have all the plants purchased. So, today is the day!

In the chapters of I Corinthians 4-6 Paul is telling the people of Corinth to stay out of trouble and he gives explicit definitions of what the trouble is. He also says to stay away from these folks. He tells them to not judge them, but to act according to their actions. Don’t turn a blind eye to sinful actions, but at the same time they are told to not judge them. Leave judging to God. Lastly, they are told to pray for the lost ones and the ones who have turned their back onto the message of Christ. Welcome them when they return.

I love this message because it fits perfectly with our Celebrate Recovery work. I went back into some of my journals from 10 years ago and was reading my entries. I was so troubled at that time and fearful of judgment as I little by little faced the demons of my past. During this time I was not given judgment. I truly was given support and always felt welcomed. Today, I want to do the same just as Paul is outlining so well. The message of scripture doesn’t lose its power. The Word of God is always accurate, relevant and true.

I keep saying that my bible reading is so much more meaningful these past few weeks. Instead of reading it to learn, it is as though I’m there in the setting each day and I experience what I read. I’m sure there are rational reasons I could delve into to describe why this is so. However, I don’t really want to go there. It is far more important to me to love each morning’s time with this magnificent Savior and Lord allowing His Gift–The Holy Spirit to speak to my own spirit.

This morning’s reading in the 2nd & 3rd chapters of I Corinthians talks about this surrendering to the phenomena of The Holy Spirit’s presence in our life once we ask Christ into our hearts. It truly is a growth process–a growth awakening. For me right now it is recognizing just how much my spirit wants to protect its voice rather than be surrendered fully to this Gift. Yet, each and every time I surrender I am always rewarded with a sense of peace and thankfulness.

The book of I Corinthians talks a great deal about living by The Holy Spirit’s promptings. I think one of the hardest things to grasp about God’s Spirit is that He never yells. That “still small voice” is what I will hear and it is so easy to set aside. Yet, this is what God is wanting me to be much more aware of and give heed to. This is my focus for today and each day. As I was journaling about it I was reminded what the Serenity Prayer says: “one day at a time and one moment at a time accepting (even) hardship as a pathway to peace.” The pathway to peace is never found following our own spirit (selfishness). It will always lead to our demise where God’s Spirit leads us to the “peace that passeth all understanding”.

Today I began the first book of Corinthians in my scripture reading. I’ve always liked the practical side of this book. Paul has a great way of telling the situation like it is and what our role should be. What was hitting me as I began the first chapter was whom God chose to be those He called to do His work. If you read vs. 28 you will see it says: “And God also selected what in the world is lowborn and insignificant…that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are.”

Joyce Meyers writes an insert regarding this passage. She says, “God works through imperfect people, or what I often call ‘jars of clay’ or ‘cracked pots’.” She goes on to describe how a candle in a jar of clay with a lid on it would still offer no light. However, if the pot has cracks the light will penetrate through them to the outside. She said that this is why God has chosen those of us with cracks in our human exterior–those things we think have made us less than others. Our entry point to the world around us is often not our strengths, but it is our weaknesses which we are willing to talk about/share with others. These are the areas which people are able to identify with us/relate to us.

Reading all of this is like refueling for the ministry work of our Celebrate Recovery and our restoration classes. Even though these ministries have needed to either take a pause in their meeting or meet remotely, the idea of sharing our own struggle and our imperfections makes us “strong in the Lord”. This takes me back to the message I had from yesterday where surrender is not a weakness, but a strength. It is not human strength, but it is the spiritual strength God provides helping others break down their walls as we break down the clay pot which we are so the penetrating Light of God’s Healing can shine through us.

Do you suppose surrender is the key to the message when both devotionals and the scripture are bringing out the significance of this individual act? In the human sense surrender is weakness–giving up. In God’s spiritual sense, it is also giving up, but the end result is so very different. It allows us to experience the empowerment of God’s involvement in our lives. It is as though I think my actions are good and I don’t need God in this particular area of my life when I don’t surrender. The power of surrender is lost if I stay in my selfish man mode.

The older I get the more I awaken to the importance of surrendering everything, and I mean everything. When I was young and had just begun teaching I know I prayed for God’s help, but it was more of a generic prayer. When I became a principal, I prayed for God to be glorified in my work, but I too often saw it as my work, rather than my obedience to God’s leading in my life in every aspect of it.

Today, I’m retired out of the professional work of teaching and administrating. I still do the consulting work with others, and it is here that I find myself wishing I could have had a much better grasp of surrender when I was younger. Even today I realize that surrender is an ongoing, daily choice. Many years ago I asked my grandpa when temptation went away? I asked this question of him when I was a teenager and he was in his late 80’s. I still remember his response. He said temptation simply adjusts itself to whatever is in your life at the time which you selfishly want, but know you shouldn’t do or have it. He gave the example of using white sugar in his coffee. He loved it but white sugar gave him extreme headaches. In spite of the headaches he’d succumb to using it once in a while just because he loved the flavor of white sugar. Then he’d pay the price and be sorry. At the time I thought I’d love to only be tempted with this choice!

Now that I’m where I am in this journey of living each day, I realize the significance of grandpa’s answer. It is always about surrender of man’s choices which can hurt him physically, emotionally, spiritually, and most of all–in his relationship with God, His Son Jesus and The Holy Spirit. I find they not only hurt me, but they deter me from the joy I find when I am fully surrendered. This message is one of the big ones in the book of Romans which I finished this morning. I not only want to heed this message, but I want to live it out for the rest of my days.

The book of Romans is truly one that outlines for a person the importance of accepting Christ as one’s Savior and Lord. It then goes into the struggle of living daily, fully surrendered to letting Christ be the Lord of our life–not just Savior. He concludes the book demonstrating what living the surrendered life should look like. He steps into judgment of others for the way they talk, doubt, dress, eat, etc. He makes it very clear that we in our human state have grave differences. It is not these differences which determine our faithfulness to God and it is not our “job” to evaluate them or judge them. God and The Holy Spirit will take care of this for each person/believer. Our role should more be helping others find their freedom in Christ as Christ is helping us to do the same.

Joyce Meyers writes an important piece connected to Romans 14 & 15 where Paul is writing about how we live out our walk with Christ. She tells of a time in her life where she was doubting Christ’s leadership and His calling. As she questioned God she was directed to read Romans 15:13. It says: “May the God of your HOPE so fill you with all joy and peace in believing that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing with hope.” She goes on to say that doubt was overriding her hope/her believing. Once she surrendered this the JOY of the Lord returned to her and she found the confidence to move forward with God’s calling on her life.

There is so much doubt in our world right now with the tragic results of this virus and its dominance over so many aspects of our lives/our world. I hear more and more “doubts”. Putting all of today’s devotional reading into perspective I find myself being told to believe and have hope. Don’t judge people’s thoughts but continue to believe myself. I know our God who is in control and I trust Him fully. I wait in anticipation to see just how He makes Himself better known as a result of this time.

To start today’s entry I want to let any reader know that this day, 38 years ago, was when I was introduced to my wife Kathy. It was a blind date. Today I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this gift has been the most significant one God has given me next to The Holy Spirit himself. I have often said that she is a second holy spirit God is using to guide me always into His path.

Today’s devotional time has once again been a time of enlightenment. I have said several times in the last couple of weeks how the book of Romans has been alive with meaning for me as I read it each day. How often I forget that our bible is the very WORDS of GOD to each of us. I do love to read and read a number of books both for my professional work as well as simply for pleasure. However, there is no other book where we can take the words and they become a SWORD to penetrate the attacks of life. It is also a LIGHT which shines in darkness. It is a HOPE for things not yet seen.

My prayer warrior most often sends me encouraging scriptures. She always says that her words are simply her words, but the Word of God is the very weapon God wants us to use to defend ourselves against the attacks of evil.

As I read today in the scriptures of Romans I find an intimacy I’ve not felt or known before. The messages within each chapter have such personal application for me. Surrendering “all of me” is taking on new meaning. Surrender is the first step of obedience, the second step is the willingness to obey what/where/when God wants us to do/or sometimes not do what we might want. How I love this God we get to serve. He never gives up on us.

God’s consistent caring was emphasized this morning once again. Coming off of the past couple days, I was just relieved to have them behind me. However, God is never done with our learning from His presence with us. This was shown in today’s devotions.

My devotional reading was emphasizing the importance of surrender to Jesus’ leadership in our lives. The author was clarifying it by literally naming: mind, thoughts, motives, eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, emotions–and even the ones we possess but don’t mention. Have we literally surrendered all of us to Jesus’ control? In my growing up years this was called sanctification. I often pray for God to take all of me and use it for His honor and glory. However, it was very different today when I took time to reflect upon each and every body part which I have some sense of control over (or it has control of me). Romans 12, as I got to my bible reading, was emphasizing the importance of total surrender to Jesus. I loved how Paul has carefully walked the reader through the struggles of living for Jesus in the earlier chapters. Then he helps us see how critically important it is to know that all of these struggles have been taken to the Cross by Jesus Christ. Now in chapter 12 Paul is having us recognize the foundation of our struggles. That is why we are to reflect on every aspect of our person as mentioned above.

In the past couple of days I easily see how my emotions had been occupying my belief. Chapter 12 tells us to surrender everything to Jesus and to believe. For me, this is the reason starting my day with Jesus is so important. I need to get grounded daily in who I want controlling my day and me in the day. Everything about us Jesus wants to use for His Honor and Glory. This can only happen if I am totally surrendered. How intimate and caring our Father is!