August 31: Tuesday Refocus

“Thy death is my life, Thy resurrection my peace, Thy ascension my hope, Thy prayers my comfort.” - The Valley of Vision

The death of Christ is life for us.  This reality is evidence of an upside-down Kingdom.  A Kingdom ruled by One who came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45).  One who emptied Himself and became obedient to the point of death (Phil 2:5-9).  It is in His death that we live - dying daily to self to truly find Life (Gal 2:20, Matt 10:39).

Because death never has the final word - not in an upside-down Kingdom, not ever.  There is peace in knowing though the Prince of Peace died, He has been raised, and gives peace not like the world - but gives the Peace of His presence with His people (Is 9:6, Jn 14:27, 1 Thess 4:14, Matt 28:20).

Not only did He die, not only was He raised, He has ascended to the right hand of the Father (Rom 8:34, Jn 20:17).  He completed His work, accepted by God, and we can rest knowing that His righteousness is now ours (Phil 3:9, Col 3:1, Heb 10:12).  Our Hope is secure anchoring our souls in heaven (Heb 6:19).

And there our Anchor rests - making intercession on our behalf before the Father (Heb 7:25).  Our Savior and King, the One who in a glorified body now stands, bearing eternal scars, having been tempted and tried in every way like we have been and will be, and yet has been without sin (Heb 4:14-16).  He prays for us.

Jesus, there is no life, no peace, no hope, and no comfort more secure and significant than what is ours in and through You.  We are grateful people, may we live like we know these things are true.  In Your name, amen.

Believing,

AB

August 24: Tuesday Refocus

‘I beg you, Lord, let the fiery, gentle power of your love take possession of my soul, and snatch it away from everything under heaven, that I may die for love of your love as you saw fit to die for love of mine. Amen.’ - Francis of Assisi 

The love of God: 

Fiery enough to awaken hearts of stone and turn them to hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).  

Gentle enough to not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick (Isaiah 42:3).  

Perfect enough to cast out fear (1 John 4:18).

Deeper than feelings or emotions, it is the very person of God (1 John 4:8).

It is God who in love sends His Son (John 3:16).  

It is God who in love welcomes enemies as friends (Romans 5:10).  

And it is God who in love reveals Himself exposing any of our attempts to find love outside of Love Himself.

Lord, in the middle of our half-hearted pursuits, and divided affections, reveal a greater glimpse of Yourself to us.  For Your name sake, amen.

Love,

AB 

August 17: Tuesday Refocus

‘Lord, You know what is best; let this be done or that be done as You please. Give what You will, as much as You will, when You will. Do with me as You know best, as will most please You, and will be for Your greater honor. Place me where You will and deal with me freely in all things. I am in Your hand; turn me about whichever way You will. Behold, I am Your servant, ready to obey in all things. Not for myself do I desire to live, but for You—would that I could do this worthily and perfectly! Amen.’ - St. Thomas À Kempis (1380-1470)

Our hearts are visible in our prayers.  Do we believe - do we live - as though the LORD is our chosen portion and our cup, the One who holds our lot (Ps 16:5)?  Those who have nothing in heaven and earth they desire more that God can rest securely in the One who gives good gifts - even when those gifts appear evil (Ps 73:25, Jam 1:17, Job 2:10).  What more could we desire in this life than to have the One who gave up His life for us all (Eph 2:5)?

Lord, may our prayers guide our lives toward You. In Christ's name, amen.

Praying,

AB

August 10: Tuesday Refocus

‘I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.’ - Charles Spurgeon

There is perhaps nothing that exposes our hearts to ourselves more than trial and trouble.  We discover what we truly value, and where we are rooted and grounded. 

Jesus said that He is the vine and we are the branches, and He invites us to abide in Him (Jn 15).  But when we respond to trial and trouble attempting to muscle through, grit our teeth and bear it, or ignore it and pretend like it’s not there - really what is being exposed at that moment is that we abide in ourselves, not in Christ.  And those are shallow roots.

We can abide in Christ now by actively looking to Him, actively resting in Him, actively trusting Him, actively treasuring Him.  Abiding in Christ will not mean we are free of any trial and trouble, in fact, Jesus says in this world we will face trial and trouble (Jn 16:33).  But when we abide in Him, we can be rooted and anchored deeply in Him even in the midst of trouble and trial.

Yes, every one of us will face trial and trouble in this life, but Christ invites us to take heart - because He has overcome the ultimate trial and trouble.

Jesus, we are grateful that you have overcome the ultimate trial and trouble, and you are with us in our own trials and trouble.  Let us abide deeply in You, as You abide in the Father, amen.

Taking heart,

AB

August 3: Tuesday Refocus

‘If you know you are Beloved of God, you can live with an enormous amount of success and an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity, because your identity is that you are the Beloved.’ - Henri Nouwen

What is true for every follower of Christ, regardless of how visible or overlooked, how successful or forgotten:

You were dead, Christ has made you alive (Eph 2:5)

You are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)

God has canceled the record of debt standing against us (Col 2:14).

You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light (Col 1:13).

God is for you (Rom 8:31).

You have peace with God (Rom 5:1).

You are sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13).

Christ has taken the punishment and death we rightfully deserve (Rom 6:23).

You have been set free, for freedom (Gal 5:1).

You are a child of God (1 Jn 3:1).

God has not left you as an orphan, He has come to you (Jn 14:18).

You are adopted into the family of God (Eph 1:5)

God is your father and Christ is your brother (1 Cor 8:6).

You are a coheir with Christ (Rom 8:17).

Nothing can separate you from the love of God (Rom 8:31).

Nothing can snatch you from His hand (Jn 10:28).

You are forgiven (Ex 34:6-7).

You are justified (Rom 5:1).

Christ has made you His own (Phil 3:12).

God has prepared good works for you to walk in (Eph 2:10).

God has never forsaken you (Heb 13:5).

You have been bought by a price (1 Cor 6:20).

Your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev 21:27).

All this and more.  In and through and because of Christ.  Hallelujah.

Lord, let me live like it is true, amen and amen.

Amen,

AB

July 27: Tuesday Refocus

“Concentrate on God, and be carefully careless about everything else.” - Oswald Chambers

Our minds wander and drift.  

Our attention is splintered across details, 

responsibilities, 

the future,

the past, 

regrets 

and anxiety.  

And yet, we are reminded by Christ Himself that our Father knows what we need before we even ask (Matt 6:8, 32).  That our Father delights to give us good gifts (Matt 7:11, James 1:17).  That He cares for even the sparrow and clothes the Lillies of the field - how much more does He care for us (Matt 6:25-34)?

When we can say and believe with the Psalmist, ‘Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’ (Ps 73:25-26) We show the kingdom we seek - and we can rest knowing that ‘all these things will be added…’ (Matt 6:33).

Lord, let there be nothing we desire in this life or the next, in heaven or on earth more than we desire You.  Thank you that You have made yourself available to us, in Your name, amen.

Looking,

AB

July 20: Tuesday Refocus

‘All true servants of Christ must be content to wait for their wages. Their best things are yet to come.’ - J.C. Ryle

Delayed gratification is not a modern, Western value.  And why would it be when we can get what we want when we want it with the click of a button?  But followers of Christ are called to something entirely other.  

We are called to…   

‘…lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.’ (Matt 6:20).

Invest our lives in something we ‘…know in part; then [we] shall know fully, even as [we] have been fully known.’ (1 Cor 13:12).

Lose our lives for His sake to find life (Matt 16:25).

‘…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Heb 12:2).

May we wait patiently, with endurance and expectation.

Jesus, You who were rich, for our sake became poor so that we through your poverty might become rich.  May we follow You, bearing the cross to one day wear a crown.  For Your greater glory, and for our greater joy, amen.

Waiting,

AB

July 13: Tuesday Refocus

‘Let’s practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration.  Let’s believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there.’ - A.W. Tozer

There is nowhere our God cannot be found.  We compartmentalize, put boundaries around our lives, our work, our relationships, our thoughts, and our actions, but the One who upholds the universe by the word of His power is not constrained or held by anything built with human hands (Heb 1:3, Acts 17:24).  

So why is it so hard for us to find him in the ‘simple deeds’?  

In the quiet moments? 

In the unseen?

Perhaps we fail to see God in the simple deeds because we believe that there are simple deeds and significant deeds, important moments and mundane moments, sacred space, and secular space.  But as Sally Lloyd-Jones reminds us, ‘Every story whispers His name.’

‘And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.’ Colossians 1:17

Every work can reveal Christ to us.  Every work we offer can reveal Christ to the world.  We can make Him visible in our simple deeds when we find Him there.

Spirit, would you reveal Jesus to us - in the simple and small, in the mundane and monotonous.  And may we reveal Jesus to the world in the simple and small, in the mundane and monotonous.  In His name, amen.

Looking,

AB

July 6: Tuesday Refocus

"Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen." Martin Lloyd-Jones

We are caught in the current of the culture and we do not even realize it.  We are swept along by values, expectations, and comparison to a world that is the opposite of the upside-down Kingdom to which we belong as followers of Jesus.  We expect more joy, fulfillment, and life from our culture than we do from our daily dying to self, and life to Christ (Lk 9:23, Eph 2:5).  We see our faith as peripheral, not central.  And therefore give little thought to how Christ desires to work in us and through us.

If I am walking with Christ I can expect that through His Spirit…

…I will be more closely conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29).

…that my mind will be renewed (Rom 12:2).

…that my heart will be transformed (Ezekiel 36:26).

…that I will desire the things of God (Ps 37:4).

…that I will love my enemies, and pray for those who persecute me (Matt 5:44).

…that I will encounter the risen, living Christ (Lk 24).

…that I will grow in love and Godliness (Jn 13:35).

…that I will be generous, and open-handed (2 Cor 9:6-8).

…that I will live primarily as a citizen of heaven (Phil 3:20).

The Spirit is not stagnant.  He slowly sanctifies everyone whom He indwells.  But when we live with holy expectation we will begin to see the Spirit’s movement sanctifying and shaping our lives more deeply than the culture.

Lord, forgive us for not expecting, not desire our lives to be different as a result of walking with you.  May we expect to be different as a result of encountering you daily, moment by moment, again and again.  For Your glory and our good, amen. 

With expectation,

AB

June 29: Tuesday Refocus

"Worship is not something we “work up,” it is something that “comes down” to us, from the character of God." - Sinclair Ferguson

Revelation and response are the rhythm of our worship (Rom 12:1).  God reveals Himself, and we respond.  There can in fact be no right worship, without God’s revelation of Himself - thus the reason we cannot ‘work up,’ our worship.  Right worship is the response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself.  And where do we see God’s revelation of Himself?  Everywhere.  

Scripture tells us that no one is without excuse because God’s creation reveals our Creator (Rom 1:20, Ps 19:1).

People, all of whom are made in the image of God reveals some small glimpse of the Father (Gen 1:26, Gen 5:2).  

God’s Word reveals Himself to us - it is living and active, He inspired the Word to be written, He speaks through it even now (2 Tim 3:16, Heb 4:12).  

God reveals Himself through His Spirit, the One through whom we are led in all truth to Jesus (Jn 16:13).  

God reveals Himself through His Son, His great love in sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins (1 Jn 3:16, Rom 8:32).  

God reveals Himself in His Church, the ones who are tasked to love one another as Christ has loved us, to display His heart and character in our slow transformation to resemble our Savior in His life, death, and resurrection (Jn 13:35, Rom 6:5).

God reveals Himself in all of our brokenness.  The awareness that we are not - our world is not - as it should be.  God reveals Himself as the one who has come and is coming again to make all things new, wipe every tear, and see every sad thing become untrue (Rev 21:5, Is 65:17).

Don’t work up your worship, open your eyes to a God who has revealed Himself in the darkest places as the One who illuminates our hearts.

Father, reveal yourself to us.  Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to comprehend, and lives to obey.  Let us respond to You with worship.  Amen.

To worship,

AB

June 22: Tuesday Refocus

“O Lord and Master of my life, keep me from the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter.  Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love.  O Lord and King, Grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother and sister, for you are blessed, now and ever and forever.  Amen.”  - Prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian

Isn’t it tempting to fill our prayers with the things we hope God will do?  Rather than to seek God’s face, and in silence, entrust ourselves to who He is having us become?  If prayerlessness reveals pride, filling all our prayers with many words reveals how far our hearts are from real relationship with God (Matt 6:7).

‘I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word, I hope; my soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.’ Ps 130:5-6

Amen,

AB

June 15: Tuesday Refocus

“Most Scriptures speak to us, the Psalms speak for us.” —Athanasius

Every experience of being human is represented in the Psalms.  

Fear and peace (Ps 56:3, Ps 91).  

Sorrow and joy (Ps 16:4,11).  

Pain and triumph (Ps 40, Ps 59:10)

And everything in between.

One of the things I find so profoundly moving is that Jesus, being fully God, put on our flesh and bone, and stepped into our brokenness.  Although Jesus was not broken on the inside the way you and I are broken, Jesus uses the Psalms to give voice to his experience of inhabiting a human body.  And we see this clearly on the cross - of all of the ways that the God-man could express His heart at that moment, He uses our words - ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Ps 22:1, Matt 27:46).

Wherever you are in your journey of faith, you can look to the Psalms to give voice to your experience.  And you can look to your Savior, who this very moment inhabits a fully glorified human body, like the one that will be ours when our sojourning is over, and we see our Savior face-to-face (Phil 3:21).

Jesus, we look to You - the one who has taken on our skin and sin.  The One who uses Your Spirit-inspired words to give voice to your experience.  The One who is able to empathize with us as our Great High Priest - and we are grateful to You, and for You.  In Your name, amen.

Looking,

AB