FROM JEFFERSON BETHKE

FROM JEFFERSON BETHKE

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Genesis 1:26 (ESV) The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. Exodus 14:14 (ESV) 2 Humans have such a peculiar and unique calling by the God of the universe. Genesis 1 says He created everything by speaking. But in creating us specifically, it says He reached down into the dust. We are Spirit and dirt. Complex yet finite. Matter yet mysterious. And God says, Let us make man... The dance of the Trinity God in three persons overflowed in love and joy in creating us. We were created out of community, which means we were created for community. And so to be a proper human being is to live truly as God s image. We are His divine representation here on earth. We are in this unique and peculiar middle ground where we are above the creation but below the Creator. Created to have dominion over the creation. To reflect to the world that image. To create, to live, to spread beauty, and to flourish. And then to take that creation and make something beautiful out of it and offer it back to God as an act of worship. To be an image bearer means to be a priest to mediate between the creation and the Creator. How can you live more like an image bearer today? Can you imagine what it felt like? The nation of Israel had finally been let go by Pharaoh. They were free. They were on their way out. Then Pharaoh changed his mind. The Israelites get to the Red Sea, and right when they realize they don t know how they are going to cross, they turn around and see an army coming after them. The terror. The fear. I can t imagine how that felt. To be completely shut in and stuck. And so they begin to complain and yell at Moses. Did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? We could ve stayed in Egypt to do that! And that s when Moses responds: The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. Moses tells Israel they do have to do something. They do have a job. To get through this they need to obey. And the command they need to obey? Be quiet and watch God work. Have faith. Truly in the One who brought them out of slavery. I don t know what you re facing today, but what would it look like to stop and trust in your Creator? He didn t get you this far to leave you hung out to dry. He goes before you and after you. He will fight for you. My favorite part about this story is that after God opens up the Red Sea, Israel is then commanded to walk. Sometimes being silent and trusting God looks like putting one foot in front of the other while towers of water are on your left and on your right. But He is good, and He can be trusted. In what area in your life do you need to trust that God fights for you? JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 1 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 2

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 3 Psalm 103:12 (ESV) Psalm 118:1 (ESV) You know what s strange about the above verse? Why didn t God say north and south? Why did He say east and west? I think He didn t say north and south, because there is an end to those. If you start going north, you will reach a point sooner or later where you are no longer going north and begin going south. The same thing happens if you start going south at some point you begin going north. But what about east and west? They never end. If you start going east, you will forever be going east. Crazy, huh? Now let that sink in. God says when you trust Him He will remove your sins as far as the east is from the west! He will throw them in the opposite direction, and they will never get thrown back at you. They are gone forever. Never to be brought up against you. All the things you ve done, all the bad things done against you, all the stuff that will happen in the future are erased. Do you believe that? God goes to great lengths to show this is true. Because of Jesus, who took our sin into the grave with Him and then came back bringing us new life, we can rest in that fact. One question I think people who follow Jesus have to ask constantly is, what does God want from us? What s the point to our day-to-day lives? I think there s a few answers from Scripture to that question. One that constantly comes up time and time again, though, is thankfulness. God has called us to gratitude. To be thankful. To live a life of thanksgiving. Why? Because of all that He s done for us. His love toward us is so great and steadfast. That means it doesn t change, it doesn t move, it doesn t relent. It is always in full force toward us. He knows us. He loves us. He sees us. We can enter into a daily relationship with Him because of Jesus. And those are all great reasons to be thankful. And so I think one of the easiest ways to understand worship is to understand it as thanksgiving. Going throughout your day looking for reasons to turn toward Him and thank Him. Do you really believe you are forgiven? What stuff do you need to give up to God and trust that it s gone because of what Jesus has done? What can you be thankful for today? How can you cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving throughout the day? JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 3 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 4

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11 (ESV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1 3 (ESV) 6 When I was growing up, for some reason I thought that following Jesus was a big huge buzzkill. All the fun was out in the world, and following Jesus was a downer. If I enjoyed anything, well, then it must be wrong. But David said that God made known to him the path of life. And in His presence was fullness of joy and pleasures forever. What if we really believed that? That in the very presence of God, that is where true joy is found. That God created in us the capacity for delight and it s not sinful to delight in something. When something is in the very context it was created for and lines up with Scripture, then we can take pleasure in it and delight that God created it to do this very thing! What in your life do you enjoy? Have you found that fullness of joy in His presence? Jesus is the very eternal image of God Himself. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is the divine logos, or divine logic, and very Word of God. He is before anything and after everything, and everything that was made was in Him and because of Him. Let that sink in when you think about Jesus. When you think about the cross. The resurrection. That the very God of the universe picked up flesh, put it on, and came into our world. He knows what it s like to suffer, to be betrayed, to be tired, hurt, maligned, and more. God knows. God is Jesus. Maybe take some time in prayer today and just sit on that thought. Let it linger that the very infinite God of the universe is this Word, Jesus. Let the bigness of God sit in your mind and imagination. JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 5 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 6

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. John 3:7 (ESV) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8 (ESV) 8 The curse that is on the world is much bigger than we could ever imagine. Jesus came to show us that it can t be fixed merely by having a better attitude or doing a bunch of good things. Death needs death. There needs to be a resurrection, or a new birth, not a shifting of the old birth. In this context Jesus was also talking to a religious leader of His day. This man thought that because of the family he was born into, he was going to be okay. But what family you are born into can t change your heart and make you a new creation. We can t rely on anything we ve done, what family we belong to, or what our trophy wall has on it. The only thing that means anything in the kingdom is trust and faith in Jesus that produces a new heart. I m writing this on my laptop. For my laptop to work, I am in need of electricity to keep it charged. If I use it while it s not connected, though, sooner or later it will run out of battery, and I will have to plug it in to recharge it. I think the Holy Spirit is a lot like that. We need to plug in to Him through prayer, the Word, and sitting in His presence to receive that power. We have the power already; the question is, will we plug in to it? And when He gives it to us, we need to take that power and not use it only on ourselves but go tell other people about Jesus. To be witnesses. How can you be thankful today for a new heart from Jesus? What are some things you ve noticed that changed once you got a new heart? Are you plugged in to that power? Who do you need to be a better witness to today? JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 7 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 8

9 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Revelation 21:1 (ESV) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Titus 2:11 12 (ESV) 10 One of the craziest things about the Bible is that we know how the story ends. We see the grand vision of the new city coming down from heaven to earth like a bride adorned for her husband. There is full reconciliation. There s a new city. There s life. There s beauty. It is a stunning picture. Knowing the end should change how we live. Because we know the end, we can order our lives so that we are properly pointed toward that end. The end of the story when we are worshipping God before His throne and at the final feast that will last forever. This is one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. The reason I love it is because for so long I struggled with how to change my behavior. I would do things I didn t want to do, and I always struggled with how to actually change that behavior. Should I work harder? Would it change if I condemned myself? What about more discipline? What I love about this passage is that it says the grace of God is what trains us. The free gift and love of God bestowed on us on Jesus behalf is actually also our teacher! It doesn t just save us; it is what changes us! Meditate on the picture of the end of the story. What are you most excited about? Is your life on that path? Do you believe that today? What false teachers do you listen to? JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 9 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 10

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. Romans 5:15 (ESV) But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Jeremiah 29:7 (ESV) 12 There s no middle ground as a Christian. There is no way to either be half in or half out. Either you are in Adam, or you are in Christ. Either you re in Adam s family, or you ve been transferred to the family of Jesus. And the beauty of this is that Jesus is our new family and head. Meaning, we can draw from Him life instead of death. Grace instead of condemnation. Just like a trunk of a tree, Jesus is now our trunk if we ve trusted in Him, and we can now bear fruit not on our own but by simply abiding in Him. Letting Him flow through us. A lot of times we think if we are Jesus followers, then we just need to hold on tight and wait until He scoops us all into heaven and gets rid of those other people. But the problem with that theology is that it doesn t line up with the Scriptures. We aren t to hold on tight until we escape this place; we are to restore it. God told Israel to seek the welfare of the place where they were in exile. They saw Babylon as the enemy. Yet God said to seek the city s welfare, because in its welfare they would find their welfare. What areas can you grow in by trusting that Jesus is your new head? In what parts of your city do you need to seek its welfare today? JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 11 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 12

13 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 (ESV) Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3 4 (ESV) One thing that is pretty clear if you study history is that freedom sometimes has to be fought for. It isn t free. It costs something. It takes work. But in that work is the freedom we so desperately are looking for. I love what Paul said: that Jesus set us free so we could have new life and joy and peace. But we must stand in that. We must plant our feet in that truth and make sure we are constantly reminding ourselves of that good news. Why? Because it s easy to forget. And once we start forgetting that Jesus set us free, we will let the joy drain out of us and no longer sense the freedom we have been given. One of the craziest things in all of Scripture is that Jesus says joy will come by serving. Our idea of joy is that it ll come through more money, more things, or more taking. But Jesus says it comes with giving all our stuff away, including ourselves. Joy comes from serving others. The world would be a different place if we always thought of others first, or counted them above ourselves. Whether in a business transaction, an argument, or in the line at the store. Are you standing firm today? How can you live free? How can you count someone above you today? How can you serve someone else today? JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 13 JEFFERSON BETHKE 14 DAY DEVOTIONAL DAY 14

IT S NOT WHAT YOU THINK