First Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Devotional: Psalm 65

Today’s passage: Psalm 65

Helpful thoughts:

  • It is only right to praise the Lord.  It is wrong to not praise Him.
  • God’s powerful display of common grace (Depicted in verses 6-13) requires every person on the face of the earth to come to Him for help and provision, whether they admit it or not.
  • All benefit from God’s kindness in the things of the earth.  Some are chosen, atoned for, and saved to fully enjoy and be satisfied with the goodness of God.

Questions to consider:

  1. How does this Psalm turn the argument of God not being loving toward those who are not saved on its head?  How patient is our God with all people?  How many of us deserve salvation?  How many of us deserve rain, sunshine, the harvest, breath in our lungs, etc.?
  2. What is the hope of the people of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Australia, etc.?  Who is their only hope?
  3. How gracious is God to hear our prayers, atone for our sins and allow us to enjoy and be satisfied in Him forever!?

Article: The Fruit of the Spirit

In Sunday School, our adult class has been studying through the doctrines of our church.  Most recently, that study has brought us to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.  We have discussed this doctrine under these two trains of thought:

  1. Who is the Holy Spirit?
  2. What does the Holy Spirit do?

In going through all that the Bible teaches us about the Holy Spirit, we wanted to spend a little extra time learning about the spiritual gifts and also what the Bible says about the sign gifts.  However, one thing we didn’t take as much time to consider, giving occasion for this blog post, is spiritual fruit.

In Galatians 5:22-23 we learn that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.“

How can I know the Spirit is working in me?  What would be great evidence in my life that I am truly a follower of Jesus Christ?  How about things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.!

And while we’re at it, what do those words mean?

  • Love – Giving of myself for the benefit of another
  • Joy – A deep abiding happiness and thankfulness
  • Peace – An inner calm or tranquility
  • Patience – Enduring composure
  • Kindness – Considerate generosity
  • Goodness – Morally virtuous
  • Faithfulness – Loyalty, commitment
  • Gentleness – This word is also translated as meekness.  John MacArthur’s Biblical Doctrine defines it as “Controlled strength expressed by a humble heart”
  • Self-control – An ability to hold back our fleshly desires

Though this list of “fruits” is probably not exhaustive, it is certainly helpful and encouraging to read through the list and to consider the meaning of each term (Of course…it’s the Bible!).  However, the list can also become very discouraging if we forget what environment this fruit needs to grow.

Apples grow the best on apple trees when the winters are cold, the summers are moderately warm, and the humidity is medium to high (Like, in Michigan!).  If you plant an apple tree in the environment that is best for it’s growth, you will see the best and most fruit.  Make sense?  So, how can that apply to our spiritual fruit?

And this is where it is crucial that we understand…where we can be the most encouraged or discouraged.  If I think that the environment I need to develop love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is only where I can find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…I am completely right!  But if I think I am going to find that environment anywhere on this planet, with any of the people on this planet, I am going to be disappointed and discouraged.  (And, if anyone tries to use me or you as their “environment”, they too will be left without all the help they need.)

  • “If my kids would just be quiet, I could grow in peace!”
  • “If my co-workers would stop messing everything up, I would be able to stay patient!”
  • “If I could get more sleep, I would be able to show kindness.”
  • “If my wife just loved me more, it would be so much easier to love her back.”

Remember, the environment matters, and all the people around you, your spouse, kids, neighbors…everyone, are just as perfect and flawless as you and I.  Yikes!  But that’s OK, because God didn’t call this fruit, the fruit of a great family or the fruit of a great night’s sleep…it’s called the fruit of the Spirit.

It’s such good news that this fruit listed in Galatians 5 comes from the Spirit and not from a perfect earthly environment.  Especially because we are prone to go the wrong way whether things are going “terribly” OR when things are going “well”.  That’s why it says in Proverbs 30:9, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say. ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

The fruit of the Spirit then, being produced by the Spirit in and through us, can be ready for harvesting whether the humidity of this life is high or low, whether the winter was frigid or mild, because we have a shelter in Christ.  In Psalm 62, for instance, David writes, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.  He alone is my rock and my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

So, let’s consider how we might redefine our fruit shall we?:

  • Love – Giving of myself proactively and sacrificially for the benefit of another
  • Joy – A deep abiding happiness and thankfulness that can cut through times of adversity and still remains fixed on the highest joys of Christ when other things around me go “well”
  • Peace – An inner calm or tranquility that can remain intact through the ups and downs of life because the Lord never changes
  • Patience – Enduring composure made possible in the knowledge that only God will make all things new
  • Kindness – Considerate generosity with no strings attached
  • Goodness – Morally virtuous toward those who would count themselves my enemies and toward those who would count themselves my friends, in order to point them all to Christ, their greatest need
  • Faithfulness – Loyalty, commitment, motivated by the mercies of God toward me that are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-24)
  • Gentleness – Controlled strength expressed by a humble heart that neither retaliates in vengeance after a “loss” nor taunts in order to brag after a “victory”
  • Self-control – An ability to hold back our fleshly desires because we have come to value fellowship with God more than we value the elimination of our hardships or the furtherance of our life of ease

Praise God for his gracious fruit-producing work in our hearts and lives!

See you in Sunday School!

Devotional: Psalm 64

Today’s passage: Psalm 64

Helpful thoughts:

  • Mankind in his wickedness is convinced he is making progress and accomplishing something worthwhile, while he is bringing judgment on himself.
  • God’s judgment will seem as though it came suddenly, out of nowhere.
  • The role of the righteous (Those who are in Christ by the grace of God) is to wait patiently and expectantly.
    • No man or political party will ever be able to make everything right.
    • God can… and will.

Questions to consider:

  1. Why is it so good and right to cry out to God when it looks like the wrong side is prevailing?
  2. When things aren’t going well, what do I tend to rejoice in?  Where do I tend to seek refuge?  Whom do I desire to exult?  If those things are not God, how effective have they been? Did they bring me joy?  Were they worthy of exultation?
  3. When will God, once and for all, fulfill the hope of this psalm?  How can you remember that we win, even when it looks like you are losing?

Devotional: Psalm 63

Today’s passage: Psalm 63

Helpful thoughts:

  • God is beyond worthy of our every desire, longing and interest.
  • This truth does not automatically result in our pursuit of Him.  David had to choose.  He resolved to praise, be satisfied, remember, meditate on and cling to God.  The fruit of this resolve gave David even more reason to continue in his endeavor!
  • David’s enemies’ sinful conduct and end are given as a contrast.
    • David gave himself to beholding the glories of God and was satisfied.
    • Others gave themselves to selfish ambition, and they were consumed.

Questions to consider:

  1. How could this Psalm be compared with 2 Corinthians 3:18?  Does considering/meditating on the glories of God and the truth of the Gospel produce growth and fruit in believers?  How?
  2. How could this Psalm be compared to John 4:13-14 and the story of the Samaritan Woman?  If we try to quench our thirst with other earthly things, what will always result?
  3. How do God’s holiness, righteousness, power, love, and Christ’s sacrifice (among many other attributes) compel you to love and obey Him with joy?

Devotional: Psalm 62

Today’s passage: Psalm 62

Helpful thoughts:

  • God is not a last resort rock/salvation/fortress.  He is the only one.
    • This includes ourselves.  The idea of finding strength within ourselves to overcome is contrary to this Psalm, to the Word of God.
  • Increased success, popularity and wealth could be the greatest temptations on the earth.
    • There is no lasting joy or strength in these things.
    • There will be people who give no true respect as a result of these things…only expectations and manipulation from those who desire to benefit from your success, popularity and wealth.

Questions to consider:

  1. How does a verse like James 4:14 (What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.) affect your view of your inherit inner strength?  How does seeing ourselves as weak, seeing God as ultimately strong and then resting in Him enable us to endure all things (Philippians 4:13)?
  2. Why does elevating my view of self end up being my downfall?  How would viewing myself as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-3) bring about a life of joy?
  3. How should a Christian treat a person who is “successful” (Like a professional athlete, a wealthy businessman, a celebrity)?  What do they truly need?  How might many others be treating them?  How could you offer them something different and life-giving?

Devotional: Psalm 61

Today’s passage: Psalm 61

Helpful thoughts:

  • When David felt far from God and lacked personal strength, he believed that God could hear his prayer and he desired fellowship and protection in God.
    • God was not enabled to hear only because David believed.  That is how Santa Claus works in the movies…that is not how God works.
  • David’s desire was to be in the house (Tabernacle/Tent) of the Lord (Verse 4).
  • Even if I became a king, God would still be “higher” than me.  He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
  • Verses 6-7 are fulfilled in King Jesus!

Questions to consider:

  1. How does a right view (a high view) of God help us to grow in our prayer, in our worship, in our desire for righteous living?
  2. Why should we love to be in church?  If church isn’t a place of rest, encouragement, growth, learning, repentance, then what is wrong?  (With me? and/or In the church?)
  3. How can Christ’s eternal reign encourage you to persevere even when you feel like you are at the end of the earth…or at the “end of your rope”?

Devotional: Psalm 60

Today’s passage: Psalm 60

Helpful thoughts:

  • The last several Psalms have been written in times when David was not yet king, being hunted by Saul.  Psalm 60 is written as King David is about to lead Israel on one of his first military campaigns.
  • The early verses of this Psalm give an overview of the history of Israel through the time of the judges and Saul’s reign.
  • With this Psalm, David calls on Israel to once again fear the Lord and asks God to once again bless Israel.

Questions to consider:

  1. Who was in control of Israel’s successes and their consequences?  To whom did David attribute the quaking of the land?  Why was David right to not blame God or be upset with Him for Israel’s difficulties?
  2. Who gives the “banner of truth” and who displays it?  (See verse 4.  Check the NASB or the footnote in the ESV for the translation, “That it may be displayed because of truth.”)
  3. What is the result of the display of the banner of truth?  How does truth bring deliverance? (Think Gospel first!)

Devotional: Psalm 59

Today’s passage: Psalm 59

Helpful thoughts:

  • Verse 3 reminds us that persecution comes for the right that we do and/or believe.  People don’t persecute Christians for doing wrong things.  They persecute Christians for doing/believing right things.  Isaiah 5:20
  • No matter how mighty or powerful man may feel he is, God is stronger.  To think that man could even come close to God’s ability and power is laughable.
  • The men who are acting sinfully in this Psalm show off and talk big trying to get things for themselves.  David uses his mouth to sing praises to the real source of strength.

Questions to consider:

  1. How can we learn to not allow people to intimidate us?  When they start talking in a way to amplify themselves, to what does the Bible compare them?
  2. What is true of every person that we might fear?  How do they compare to God?  Even if we gain the favor of a loud-talking self-centered person, how long will that last and what would we gain from it?
  3. If David had tried to outsmart these men, bark louder, or flex his muscles in response, would he have been any better? How was David’s approach to these men better than beating them at their own game?

Devotional: Psalm 58

Today’s passage: Psalm 58

Helpful thoughts:

  • The little “g” gods in verse 1 could have been translated as “lords”, as in leaders of people.
    • These leaders would have seen themselves as mouthpieces for the gods, and they judged their people crookedly.
  • The request for God to break their teeth in their mouth is referring back to the illustration of the venomous bites of a serpent.  David is requesting that God remove from them their ability to hurt anyone in their positions of power.
  • David looks forward to what God has promised in Revelation 19:11-21.  Our hero and David’s hero is Jesus Christ!

Questions to consider:

  1. Is there anything new under the sun?  Has the world been rid of injustice?  When will justice finally be served?  When will everything finally be made right?  Who will resolve this conflict?
  2. What will mankind say is true after the final battle? (Verse 11)  How does this compare with Philippians 2:9-10?
  3. Knowing that this is how God intends to bring final justice on the earth, where should we put our hope and trust?  Who is the only One who can make everything right?  Who can’t?  Therefore, what should be our primary mission as the church?  (Matthew 28:18-20)  How are we doing at keeping this our priority?