My Daily Butter: 2014

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Daily Buttter: You're Dead!

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (6/24/2014):

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)

Older brothers often reminded us younger siblings that, "You're dead!" - usually because they are preparing to be the tool of the Lord's vengeance for a wrong that we had (allegedly) committed. While that can pretty much be attributed to boys being boys, I still need this reminder. Because I am dead, I do not need to yield to temptations. In fact, I should not attribute any power to the temptations to try things the old way as their power has been broken at death.

In recent days, through reminders from multiple passages and hymns (e.g., Gal. 2:20; Phil. 2:1-16 & "I Surrender All"), I have been repeatedly convicted of my "I" problem. As Julie Ackerman Link pointed out in today's ODB, we are broken in our sin and in need of the renewing, binding, value-bestowing work of His blood to remake us into a whole, usable vessel in His image. Why, when He is adding all that is needed to make me complete, do I keep trying my way through the world's system to fill my perceived needs?

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

Monday, June 23, 2014

Daily Butter: Bind us together

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (6/23/2014):

But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
(Colossians 3:14)

While David C. McCasland used the term "restored" in today's ODB, I prefer the word used in verse 10 in nearly all the English versions I checked: "renewed." This passage is about one concept that the Holy Spirit is continuing to work on me: to reckon myself dead - "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Shed the dead; thrive in the alive.

Of all the things we are to "put off" (vv 8-9) and replace with the traits we are to "put on" (vv 12-13), love is left for last and "above all" for a reason. It can act as almost a sealant that not only protects from a resurgence of all that has been "put off" while binding these traits that have been "put on" into a cohesive whole, it does so with a brilliant "mother of pearl" sheen that is to be the most recognizable feature of our fellowship:

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)

Friday, June 20, 2014

Daily Butter: Youth

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (6/20/2014):

Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
(Psalm 103:5)

My wife and I were talking about our aches and pains once our son was in bed and laughing a little together at how people react. I had a coworker ask if they could guess my age and ended up having to produce my driver's license to show her guess was over a decade off. My wife confirmed that she has seen some confused looks when she mentions something about her fortieth birthday. Yes, there are many parents of children the same age as our son that are more than a decade younger than us. While my son seems to "keep us young" and "turn us gray" at the same time, it's not the doing of my son, David. David, the Psalmist, included this verse in the list of reminders for us to give credit where credit is due: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:" (v2).

Praise be to the Lord for giving us the energy needed for the tasks which He has entrusted to us.

(Scripture quotation from The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Daily Butter: Identity

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (6/12/2014):

And thus they returned us an answer, saying: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth,...
(Ezra 5:10-11a)

In Ezra's account of the Israelite return to the land and effort to rebuild the temple, opposition arose as it always does when responding to God's call. When asked to defend their authorization to reconstruct the temple, their first answer was not to pull out the decrees given by the human governing authorities. While they did provide the governing authority "proof" (vv 13, 17), their first response was the knowledge of who they were and more importantly whose they were. In this knowledge, they pressed on in the knowledge that this was what God had called them to do.

Jennifer Benson Schuldt in her ODB writing today wrote the reminder, "It is God’s power that enables His work, not our own." This sentence struck me as a truth in three different aspects:

God's power enables His work, not our own [power]. -- We should never think that "we got this" and lose sight that it is His power that accomplishes His work.
God's power enables His work, not our own [work]. -- If God is not in it, God's power will not support it.
God's power enables [not does] His work, not our own. -- Praise the Lord that He has entrusted faithful servants with His work. There is no feeling quite like know God has worked to touch another life through you.