Tag: God

Posted in Advent devotions

Fire from heaven

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash

The firewood was damp. I didn’t have any newspaper. What little kindling I could find was wet. It was windy. Night was approaching. It was a challenge, but I got a smoky fire going inside the campsite ring of rocks.

Elijah arranged similar conditions when he challenged the prophets of Baal to a sacrifice challenge. He soaks his sacrifice and the wood beneath it with enough water to fill a moat around the altar. But it’s not a problem for God who send fire to consume the sacrifice, wood, stone altar, and all the water (1 Kings 18:20-40). There’s nothing left but a crater after the Lord demonstrates that he is the one true God.

On a recent walk I saw a burned out shell of a car in someone’s driveway. Every Thanksgiving people post videos of turkeys going up in flames when improperly dropped into a pot of hot oil. I vividly remember when wildfires raged within a half-mile of my home. I never underestimate the power of flames.

Every once in while God shows up in fire. Like the burning bush from which he spoke to Moses. Or chariots and horses of fire when he took Elijah to heaven. Or when he spoke to Zechariah who was burning incense in the temple. The Holy Spirit looked like tongues of fire descending on the apostles on Pentecost. Jesus’s eyes looked like they were on fire when John saw him in the first chapter of Revelation.

Sometimes God’s fire consumes. Sometimes it purifies. Elijah gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree as he prayed for God to reveal himself with fire.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Making a somebody out of a nobody

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Mohamed B. on Unsplash

Did you ever stop and consider how many first-generation immigrants are a part of your life? My two neighbors across the street are from Portugal and Brazil. The family up the street who love my dogs are from Ukraine. The crew that put a new roof on my house came from Mexico. Our favorite take-out food is prepared by a family from China. One of my pastors just became a U.S. citizen. He immigrated from England.

The biblical world was a mess when there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

But then we read about Ruth. She is the Moabite daughter-in-law of Naomi, whose life is in shambles after the death of her husband and two sons. When Naomi decides to return to her hometown of Bethlehem, she assumes she’ll be going alone. Ruth won’t stand for that. She is going to be there for Naomi no matter what.

After meeting Ruth in his fields, gleaning barley, Boaz redeems Naomi from homelessness and marries Ruth. Their son is the grandfather of King David. And just like that, God grafts an unlikely immigrant into the family tree of the Messiah, Jesus.

God is skilled at making somebody out of a nobody. When you are feeling insignificant or unnoticed, you can be certain he’s paying attention to your life. When you pray, he listens to you. When you need help, he’s already arranged for assistance. When you spend a moment in his word, he has something to say to you. He created you, he redeemed you, and he takes up residence in your heart. You’re important to God. You are somebody.

Ruth gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree, a walk-on who gets a role in the advent of the Christ.

Posted in Advent devotions

Running towards God

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Cesar Cid on Unsplash

What a nightmare! Jacob pretends to be his brother Esau so his father will give him the blessing of the first born son. Esau is steamed, plotting to kill his brother. Mom tells Jacob to run away to his uncle’s house.

What a dream! With nothing but a rock for a pillow, Jacob goes to sleep under the stars. In his dream, he sees a ladder stretching up to heaven, crowded with angels going up and down. At the top of the ladder, he sees the Lord, who connects the covenant promise of a Savior to Jacob and his offspring (Genesis 28:13,14).

When he wakes up, Jacob says, “The Lord is here!” He thought he was running away. But he was actually running towards the plans and promises of God.

There are plenty of things in life we’d like to run away from. Who wants to be around angry people, dangerous places, past mistakes, and hurtful words?

But in stead of running away, let’s think of it as running towards our Lord. After all, God’s always a step ahead of us with protection, provision, and powerful promises. (How’s that for alliteration?)

Jacob gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree, heir of God’s promise of a Savior.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

That’s easy

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Kings 3.

I was fiddling with my grandson’s Rubik’s cube a couple of weeks ago. I’ve never really tried to solve one. I felt pretty accomplished to get one whole side solved. However, I’ve watched videos of kids solve the whole cube in less than a minute. They make it look so easy.

So three kings, from Israel, Judah, and Edom, assemble armies to fight with Moab. But after a week, they run out of water. Are they destined for defeat? Only one way to find out. Go get Elisha. He’s in touch with God. Let’s hear what he has to say.

Elisha tells them to dig trenches, because water is coming. It won’t come from a rainstorm. It will come from the Lord. Then he adds, “This is an insignificant thing in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 3:18). And by the way, you’ll defeat Moab, too.

We underestimate God on a regular basis, don’t we? He creates simply by speaking. Water in a desert? Easy. Walk on water? Not really that hard. Healing? You name it, he can cure it.

The Lord asked Abraham, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). It’s a rhetorical question. Nothing is challenging for the almighty.

The challenge is believing that. The challenge is believing that my prayers and petitions are significant. God wants me to ask, seek, and knock, so he can delightfully (and quite easily) give, reveal, and open up daily blessings and new morning mercies.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

He’s my God, too

Posted on by William Douthwaite

After Elijah is separated from Elisha and taken into heaven by a whirlwind, Elisha is left with nothing but Elijah’s coat.

Now what’s he going to do? Elijah had folded up the coat, struck the Jordan’s water, and it split so the two of them could cross over. Is Elisha going to be able to duplicate that so he can go home? How exactly did Elijah do that?

It’s quiet now. The chariot of fire and horses of fire are gone. The whirlwind is gone. Elijah is gone. As he strikes the water with Elijah’s folded coat, Elisha asks, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” (2 Kings 2:14).

How do you think Elisha felt when the waters divided and he could cross over? Do you think he was surprised? Do you think he hit the water with confidence? Or was it a half-hearted “I doubt if this is going to work” effort?

I think we’ve all known men and women who seemed to be much more spiritual than us. Their mature faith, vast knowledge of scripture, amazing prayers made us feel that God must like them a lot more than us.

Elisha discovers that God’s there for him, too. I think Elisha was surprised, relieved, and encouraged when God divided the water for him to cross over. The Lord wasn’t just the God of Elijah. He was Elisha’s God, too.

It’s always a great moment when I remember that the God of all creation is my God. That the Savior of the world is my Savior. That the Holy Spirit not only dwells in the spiritual temple of God’s people (the church) but in me.

Yeah, Elijah’s God and Elisha’s God is my God, too.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Get some rest

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Shane on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 1 Kings 19.

The puppies and small grandchildren who run around our house seem to have limitless energy. They run full out until I tuck them into bed. That’s when they crash and immediately fall asleep.

After the fire of the Lord consumes Elijah’s sacrifice and he slaughters the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:38,40), Jezebel threatens his life (1 Kings 19:2).

After a day’s hike in the desert, Elijah prays, “Lord, take away my life” (19:4). I’ve had it. I quit.

He falls asleep and wakes to find an angel encouraging him to eat. After a second nap and meal, he takes a forty-day trip to a mountain called Horeb. Here, God speaks to him in a low whisper instructing him to anoints kings and a successor to be prophet in his place (19:15,16).

I think this is a great example of what we would call “self care.” Of course, it’s God who provides the physical and spiritual restoration. It was a great day on Mount Carmel. But even a prophet crashes when the adrenaline wears off. We weren’t designed to run full throttle forever. We were created needing rest. Without it, we get sick or our bodies break down. So will our souls, unless we take some time to rest.

Never feel guilty about taking care of yourself. Never feel guilty when God sends someone else along to care for you. He knows you need it.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

A box for God’s people

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the Bible” devotion from 1 Kings 8.

“Will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built” (1 Kings 8:27).

So why build a temple? Why build a church? Why make it look like your God lives in a box?

We naturally have places for things. Countries have capitals where the government is. Kitchens have cabinets where we stack the plates. Houses have shelves where we line up our books. Medicine cabinets hold all our pills.

So why wouldn’t you have a place for your God?

For many people, walking into church makes you feel closer to God. For some that’s a good feeling. For others, it’s ominous.

But some feel close to God walking down a trail through the woods. or looking up at a starry sky. Or holding an infant. Or reading a bible.

Bottom line: the box is for people, not God. The building is a place to gather and to be together. It’s a place to learn together, cry together, pray together, and celebrate together. If we could do it in our homes, we would, just like the early church. But when the Holy Spirit does his thing and the church grows, we just might need a bigger place to gather. It could be the beach. Or an amphitheater. Or a sanctuary.

No you can’t confine God to a box. But he’ll be there, wherever his people gather.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Comfortable in a tent

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Birk Enwald on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Samuel 7.

Whenever we’ve gone camping, we’ve taken time to walk through the grounds to see the variety of trailers and coaches set up for the night or for a long stay. We were always the smallest kid on the team, setting up camp in a tent, pop-up camper, or small trailer next to the behemoth rigs. With five slide outs, some of those forty-plus-foot vehicles had almost as much living space as the first house we bought.

Dwarfed by huge coaches at an RV park, I struck up a conversation with one owner who was grilling supper. He told me they had to stay put for a while because he really couldn’t afford the fuel to drive anywhere. That didn’t sound like much fun to me.

One day King David decides that God needs something better than a tent. If he’s living in a nice cedar-walled house, God should have a nice place, too (2 Samuel 7:2).

That’s not God’s style. The Lord says, “Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling” (2 Samuel 7:5,6).

God’s never had a house. His place was a tabernacle, set up wherever his people happened to be. The almighty creator of the universe was comfortable in a tent.

One day a descendant of David would build a house for the Lord. But for now, God has a better idea. “I will build you a house'” (2 Samuel 7:27). Someone from the house and lineage of David will always be on the throne of Israel, a promise that finds ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do something for the Lord. The magi bring gifts. A woman anoints him with expensive perfume. Tearful friends wrap his body in line and lay him in a tomb. His followers offer themselves up as living sacrifices.

I just need to remember that God’s greatest desire is to do something for me. He wants to give me abundant, eternal life.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Where does God fit into the equation?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 1 Samuel 24-26.

At some pastor’s conference somewhere, we were talking about people and situations in our congregations. In response to one story, an experienced pastor said, “That’s something a well-timed funeral would cure.” We all chucked, but we also all nodded in agreement. (And now you’re all wondering, “Is my pastor eagerly awaiting my demise?”)

David has two chances to deal with King Saul once and for all. The first time David is hiding in the cave where Saul retreats to relieve himself. It was the perfect moment. But David wouldn’t touch him. Not the Lord’s anointed king (1 Samuel 24:10). He simply cuts off a piece of Saul’s clothing as proof that he could have ended Saul’s life in that moment.

Not long after that, David finds Saul and his entire army fast asleep. He gets close enough to take Saul’s spear and jar of water. He could have taken the king’s life. But once again David wouldn’t touch the Lord’s anointed (1 Samuel 26:9).

Why didn’t David take matters into his own hands? He knew God had made Saul king. At the right time God would deal with him.

God had anointed David king, too. God would take care of him.

It’s always tempting to take matters into our own hands. But before you do, ask, “Where does God fit into this equation?”