Tag: Devotional

  • A Little Oil Lamp: Light for the Next Step 

    A small terra cotta oil lamp with a single burning flame, glowing against a dark background.

    Before flashlights, people carried torches, candles and even little oil lamps to see by. Now we have much higher-tech gear readily available. The flashlight was one of those super-bright high-tech gizmos. The internet ad made some incredible promises. The lamp shone with an incredible number of lumens and implied you could see clearly for miles. I don’t doubt it was bright, but I’ll take the rest with the proverbial grain of salt. There’s no doubt, though, that a good light makes walking in the dark easier and safer.

    The flashlight commercial got me thinking about a very familiar Bible passage.

    Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

    It’s true that God’s Word illustrates the path we should take, but I find this verse to be profound.

    I’ve been told that a little oil lamp was sometimes carried at night. I’ve heard sermon illustrations that say it was carried on a cord, but I can’t find any historical references to support the idea of a cord. Carried in the hand, or on a cord, a tiny terra cotta lamp would not give a great deal of light, often just enough to see where the next footstep would be.

    At times God doesn’t give us the full understanding of His Word or the path He wants us to take. He does, however, give us what we need to move forward.

    We don’t need to see the entire picture; God does, and we can trust Him all the way.

    At times we can see and move many steps. Other times the way isn’t as clear, but God walks with us,

    And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21 ESV

    Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

    Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 ESV

    No matter how dark the path, or how dim the light may seem, the Lord walks with you. Do not be afraid.

    Trust Him.

    Be blessed

    SUMMARY

    God doesn’t always show us the whole path, but He gives us enough light for the next step. No matter how dark it gets, we can trust the Lord who walks with us.

    TAKEAWAY

    God’s Word is a lot like that little oil lamp. It may not light up the whole road, but it shows us where to put our next step.

    We don’t need to see the entire picture. God does, and we can trust Him all the way.

    Some days the way is clear, and some days it isn’t, but we never walk it alone. The Lord walks with us, so there’s no need to be afraid.

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  • Clouds, Colors and Our Neighbors

    Purple and pink sky fading to soft peach near the horizon, with dark purple-gray clouds on the right and lower left and small scattered clouds in between.

    The sun was beginning to set, and the clouds were heavily reflecting the purples and pinks. I have always been fascinated by the sky’s changing colors and by clouds. The colors of the clouds in this one against the sky just caught my fancy.  

    The scene had me pondering the question: what color is the sky? Any child will tell you they blue during the day and black at night, and they would be correct … sort of. The sky can change and appear in a wide palette of colors, including red, orange, yellow, pink, purple (at sunrise and sunset), and black (at night).

    Growing up, we often talked about the color “sky-blue pink” because, while we knew the sky was “supposed to be blue,” it sometimes looked pink.

    The truth is the sky isn’t blue; it just appears that way most of the time to the human eye. However, I didn’t intend this to be a science lesson; you can easily look up the technical details yourself.

    Okay, Kevin, the sky looks blue most of the time. “So what?”

    It made me ponder what color God is. Now, we know God is spirit and doesn’t have a human form, except in the incarnate Jesus. I assume that when we see Him, at least His human form will look like a typical 1st century Jewish man. Short, olive-to-dark skin and dark hair. He is highly unlikely to be a six-foot-tall, blue-eyed Scandinavian, a Zulu warrior or an East Asian.

    God created people in His image, and they came in all shades from albino to ebony black, with differing eye and hair colors and differing body types. Despite the differences in appearance, all are somehow in the image of God and loved by Him. All humans are physical descendants of one couple, Adam and Eve. We can only speculate what color(s) they were. God had obviously provided them with the genetic material to eventually produce all the colors that we see in people today.

    Since we are all literally family (although separated by many generations) and created in the image of God for His glory, it is foolish to discriminate based on appearance. More than foolishness, it is sin.

    Now, let me be clear on something …Discrimination is not the same as differentiation. If my three six-foot-tall men, the Scandinavian, the Zulu and the East Asian, were standing side by side, dressed the same, and I said to you … “that man there”. You would likely ask “Which man?”.  Since they are the same height and dressed the same, I would likely say something like the blonde or the dark-haired man or the white man or the black man or the Asian man or some similar differentiation. If one had on blue jeans, one had on dress pants and the other shorts, I might say, “The one in the jeans or the dress pants or the one in the shorts”. Those are factors of differentiation, not discrimination. If I started to treat them differently based on their appearance, that’s a problem.

    The Word tells us that such differences don’t matter,

    But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:25-29 ESV

    The Word cautions us against preferential treatment based on appearance. It calls such behavior sin, and if we are honest, all of us have been guilty of it at least on occasion and need to repent

    If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. James 2:8-9 ESV

    The sky may come in different colors, but it remains the sky. People come in different shapes, sizes and colors, but they are still our family and neighbors. Let’s treat them that way.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    The sky can be blue, pink or purple, and it’s still the sky. People come in all colors too, and they’re still our family and neighbors.

    TAKEAWAY

    The sky comes in a lot of colors, and it’s still the sky. People do too, and every one of them is made in the image of God and loved by Him.

    Noticing that a man is blonde or dark-haired isn’t discrimination; it’s just telling people apart. The problem starts when we treat someone differently because of how they look.

    Partiality isn’t a small thing; the Word calls it sin. If we’re honest, we’ve all been guilty of it at some point, and we need to repent.

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