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Read 2 Chronicles 7 and Proverbs 28.

This devotional is about Proverbs 28:1 & 13.

A number of years ago I read a newspaper story about a man who was arrested in Chicago for a crime he had committed in Boston. I don’t remember all the details—and I haven’t been able to find the article online again—but whatever crime he committed was serious and something like 10 or 20 years had passed between the crime and his arrest.

If my memory is correct, he said he was relieved when they finally arrested him. Though he had managed to build a new life for himself and live undetected for a long time, the witness of his conscience and his fear of being captured weighted on his heart during the entire time. This is what verse 1 of Proverbs 28 means when it says, “The wicked flee though no one pursues….” It is the fear of being caught and the witness of one’s conscience that makes us panic when we’ve done something wrong and “gotten away with it.”

The contrast in verse 1b is, “…but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” This boldness is boldness in daily living, it is the confidence that comes from a clean conscience.

As sinners, we all know how nerve-wracking it is to have sin that you’re trying to cover. So, while “the righteous are as bold as a lion,” we have many moments in our life when we lack that boldness.

What should we do to recover a clean conscience? Verse 13: “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Only confession and true repentance can restore a clean conscience. It is incredibly hard to voluntarily confess your sins, especially if there are consequences—even criminal penalties—that may result from confessing. But, God is “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4) and offers us forgiveness in Christ. Often people will be merciful, too, especially when someone voluntarily confesses without getting caught and demonstrates true repentance.

These verses remind us not only to repent of our sins; they give us good reasons to avoid sinning in the first place. There is moral power in living a righteous life and, by the grace of God, we can choose to do what is right and enjoy the freedom of a clear conscience.

So, are you hiding any sin? Do you feel the weight of that on your conscience? I encourage you now to confess that sin–confess it to the Lord right now and go to the appropriate person, whom you’ve sinned against, and confess it to him, too.

And, if you aren’t hiding sin in your life now, keep it that way! You will face temptation again, so ask God to help you to do what is right in the moment of temptation so that you can glorify God with your life and enjoy the power of a clean conscience.

All of this is possible only because of Christ and his atonement for us on the cross. He died for our sins, an act of mercy that makes forgiveness a righteous possibility. He also rose from the dead in order to give us spiritual power to say no to sin as well. So, confess what you need to confess and do what is right because you love the Lord and because you want to live a clean life before him.

 

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Read 2 Chronicles 6:12-42 and Revelation 5.

This devotional is about 2 Chronicles 6:12-42.

Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple here in 2 Chronicles 6 gave great glory to God.

He began by praising God for his uniqueness and his faithfulness to his promises (vv. 14-15), then reminded God of his covenant with David by asking the Lord to complete it (vv. 16-17).

Verses 18-39 described different situations in which Israel could find itself in the future. Solomon described each problem God’s people could face, then asked the Lord to “hear” (vv. 20-21), forgive (v. 21b), act in justice (v. 23), forgive and return them to the land, (vv. 24-25).

When God dealt with sin through famine, Solomon asked God to forgive but also to “teach them the right way to live” (v. 27b). When God disciplined his people using famine or plague, Solomon asked God to deal with them according to their hearts “so that they will fear you and walk in obedience to you…” (vv. 30-31).

We talk properly of God’s grace and mercy in forgiveness. As a sinner, I join you in thanking God for those things. But do we realize that God’s commands are also expressions of his grace? They do not restrict our freedom; they “teach us the right way to live.”

May we learn to love God’s word not only for how it reveals God, calls us to faith, and comforts and encourages us; may God also cause us to love it so that I changes our lives, leading us to walk in obedience instead of our natural habits of disobedience. Obedience to God’s word not only pleases God; it protects us from the damage of sin and its painful consequences. Give us grace, Lord, to receive your commands as a precious gift and to walk in obedience to them for your glory and our good.

 

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Read 2 Chronicles 5:1-6:11 and Revelation 4.

This devotional is about Revelation 4.

The first three chapters of Revelation record the vision of Christ John saw in chapter 1 and the messages Jesus gave John for the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3. Christ’s words for the seven churches were about how those churches were doing during the time John was writing them. In other words, chapters 2-3 of Revelation did not address future events but rather present events which were happening in the churches at that time. We learned this in Revelation 1:19 which says, “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.” In that verse the phrase “what is now” refers to chapters 2-3, the seven churches as they were at the time of John’s writings.

And, those churches were not in great shape. Only the church in Smyrna, which John wrote about in Revelation 2:8-11 did not receive some kind of rebuke from the Lord. The other six churches had problems; most of them had significant problems. If I were reading Revelation 2-3 and a report card of the state of the church, I would be very, very concerned.

Here in Revelation 4, Christ turns John’s attention from the present state of the churches to what will happen in the future. We saw that at the end of verse 1 where John hears these words: “…I will show you what must take place after this.”

What John sees, however, is not a vision of the future, but a vision of God the Father. In verse 2 John reports seeing a throne with “…someone sitting on it.” Just like every other vision of God in the Bible, John does not describe God himself. Instead, he wrote in verse 3, “…the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.” God the Father was too wonderful for words to describe. His glory could only be vaguely compared to the very best beautiful things human beings might see–jaspers and rubies and rainbows, in this case.

Now, coming up next in chapter 5, God the Father will hand down a scroll of judgment on the world, so the revelation of future events that John was told he would find out about are coming in chapter 5. But, before Christ tells John the future God is going to bring, the Lord shows John, here in Revelation 4, the glorious throne of God and the perpetual worship that God the Father receives from men in verse 4. from nature in verse 5, and from angels in verses 6-8.

So, understand this: On earth there is chaos. The churches, including John the Apostle, are receiving persecution from God’s enemies. Those same churches, for the most part, have moral and theological problems inside them. The rest of the world outside the church continued to be filled with people who were enemies of God and were sinning against him constantly. But God is not worried! He is not running from one crisis to another, screaming at people to get their act together. Instead, he sits in a glorious throne room receiving non-stop worship.

This is not to tell us that God does not care about the problems in the churches or the sins of the world. He cared so much about them that he sent letters to his churches in Revelation 2-3 to speak to them about their problems and, in verse 5, he is going to give a scroll of judgment to address the sins of the world. So God isn’t detached, unfeeling, or oblivious to his creation and his church. He cares and he is in charge of these things, but he is not worried about them. In a situation where you and I would be panicked about the problems and overwhelmed by the bad information we had, God is seated comfortably and is receiving the worship he deserves.

The point of this chapter, then, is to remind us that God is Lord over everything that is happening around us. We might be worried about problems in our lives, problems in our church, problems in our workplace, state, nation, or world but God is not. God has a plan for his church and for this world and he is working out that plan. But God is unperturbed because he knows that his plan will work and that, in the end, he will be glorified.

Let that comfort you today! God cares about your life and your struggles, but he is not worried about them. He will be glorified, no matter what happens in your life. So trust that! Pray to him and commit to him the outcome of the problems that cause you anxiety. Then, relax! God has a plan for it and, whatever happens with that plan, he will be glorified and you will be cared for as one of his faithful children.

 

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Read 2 Chronicles 3-4 and Revelation 3.

This devotional is about Revelation 3.

Years ago, when I was in seminary, I was in the driveway of my house, scraping the old grass off the bottom of my mower. A couple that lived a few doors down the street walked by on the sidewalk. They asked me if I was a minister; I said I was in seminary preparing to become a pastor. The wife said, “You need to come to our church and become our pastor!” I was startled by that and said, “What church do you go to?” “St. Matt’s” she said, referring to a  church in our neighborhood, just around the corner from my house on the next block. They were walking home from a church members’ meeting at the time.

“Don’t you have a pastor?” I asked. “Yes, but all he does is tell stories about going to the grocery store and doing this and that. We need someone who will come and preach the gospel!” I was surprised by this conversation because the church she mentioned was part of a denomination that left orthodox Christianity a long time ago. I knew the church she was referring to had dwindled to only a few members and attenders, just like most of the churches in the denomination had. So, my surprise wasn’t that the preaching was unbiblical and weak; it was that there were members still there who knew the Lord!

That’s kind of what was going on at the church in Sardis that we read about in verses 1-6. The church was “dead” (v. 1b) and what little life remained was “about to die” (v. 2b). Yet verse 4 described a “few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.” Christ commanded the entire church to repent and hold fast to his doctrine (v. 3) but the promise in verses 4-6 was that those who truly did trust Christ would be saved, even if the church died around them. Verse 5 promises, “I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.”

In New Testament times, there was one church at the most in any town. So, if your church was dying, you couldn’t leave it for a living, growing one. That’s what most Christians would do today but there is something to be said for those who don’t give up the faith or the fight for a faithful church.

This passage also underscores the importance of walking with God personally even if others around you are not. At the last judgment, you will stand alone before God and so will I. We will be accountable to him for what we believe and how we lived, regardless of whether anyone else led us properly or walked with us in a way that pleases God. It must be strange to be one of the few (or only) true believers in a church, but that is no excuse to stop seeking the Lord yourself. I hope none of us is ever in that position, but regardless this passage should encourage us and challenge us to be diligent about our discipleship. If there are people who keep seeking the Lord in a dead and dying church, how much more should we be faithful to walk with him when we have so many others to encourage us, lead us and teach us to follow God!

 

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Read 2 Chronicles 2 and Revelation 2.

This devotional is about Revelation 2.

The church at Ephesus had an unusual part in the story of the New Testament. Paul started that church by preaching in the Ephesians’ synagogue at the end of his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19). Once the church had formed, however, Paul declined when the believers asked him to stay longer. Instead he left Priscilla and Aquila there (Acts 18:18) and promised to return if God wanted him to (Acts 18:21).

After he left, Priscilla and Aquila continued there and Apollos arrived preaching the baptism of John (Acts 18:24-26). When Paul returned to Ephesus in his third missionary journey (Acts 19:1) he found a small group of disciples there, but they needed to be taught about Christ. Paul did that, and, at the same time, preached Christ to Jews and Gentiles for three years (Acts 20:31). During that time, the gospel message spread like warm butter on a hot muffin (Acts 19:10), but there was also severe opposition, even resulting in a riot (Acts 19:23-41). The church in Ephesus continued under local elders after Paul left, yet he warned that false teachers would harm the church in the future (Acts 20:13-38). Paul wrote an important letter, the book of Ephesians, to this church and he later sent Timothy there to address the false doctrine and disorders that did erupt there (1 Tim 1:3). 

The situation in the Ephesian church must have stabilized because, a few years later when John wrote our passage for today, Revelation 2, the Lord commended the church of Ephesus because “you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary” (vv. 2-3). Furthermore in verse 6 he said, “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

But, in verse 4, the Lord pointed out that they had “forsaken the love you had at first.” The “first love” mentioned in this phrase is not defined any more specifically, but it seems clear that this is describing their love for Christ. This doesn’t mean that they lost their salvation or that they had just become unfeeling Christians. It means that they no longer valued Christ so much that they wanted to spread the knowledge of him everywhere. As I mentioned in the paragraph above, Acts 19:10 recorded how the gospel spread everywhere during Paul’s ministry in Ephesus. That was due to his preaching, of course, but his preaching was effective because those who believed it told others about the message and, in this way, it spread.

What was missing, then, when Jesus addressed this church here in Revelation 2? It was the witness of this church. This is suggested by Revelation 2:1 where Christ is referred to as the one who “walks among the seven golden lampstands.” The lampstands give off light and that light reveals Christ as he walks among them. Although the light of the gospel once burned bright in Ephesus, their passion to spread the knowledge of Christ had cooled off. Although they became orthodox defenders of true Christian doctrine, they no longer proclaimed the saving grace of Christ like they once had. Jesus warned them because, if they did not enlighten others to see him through the gospel, he would “remove your lampstand from its place” (v. 4b). The prescription was to “repent and do the things you did at first” which means to turn from insular orthodoxy and become diligent about representing Christ to the world like lights on a lampstand should. 

Pure doctrine is important in the church. First and Second Timothy, which were written to Timothy while he was serving in Ephesus, make that clear. But, in addition to clinging to the truth of the scripture, we need to remember that Christ has saved us personally and has commanded us to tell others about what he will do for them if they trust him.

Let’s not become so satisfied with our own salvation and so assured of our own orthodoxy that we stop sharing Christ with the world. Would you consider inviting someone to hear the life-giving message about Christ this Sunday?