Category Archives: 5x5x5 Reading Plan

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Pray For The President—It’s In Your Best Interests

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: I Timothy 2
Meditation: I Timothy 2:1-3

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior.”

Shift Your Focus… In a recent presidential campaign, it was purported that one of the candidate’s own mother said that you might have to hold your nose and vote for her son. With a mom like that, who needs an opposition party!

If the Apostle Paul were writing today to twenty-first century American believers, he’d probably say, “Not only do I want you to vote, I want you to make sure you pray for the candidates.  And while you are at it, I want you to also pray for the president and congress—Republican and Democrat, conservatives and liberals alike. It’s in your best interest to lift them daily before the Father’s throne.  Besides, it pleases God when you do!”

That is a hard pill to swallow these days with the rapscallion Republicans and disingenuous Democrats who are ruling our land. If you are like me, you find their hypocritical lifestyles, their pandering politics, their out-of-control spending, and the blatant disregard for God in their politics odious.  Frankly, it’s hard for me to pray for them. Perhaps Paul just didn’t foresee the kinds of political leaders we would have to put up with in our time, much less pray for.

Wait just a minute!  Did you ever consider who the emperor was when Paul wrote these words, and what conditions were like during the first century?  The emperor was none other than Nero—one of the worst of the worst of all the Roman emperors.  Without going into all the horrific details, Nero was responsible for some of the worst persecution against Christians at any time in history.

Yet Paul says to the believers of his day, “Pray for him.  Intercede on his behalf…even thanking God for his leadership.”  Huh?  That’s right!  Paul wanted the church to pray for this horrible man so that God would use his leadership as a launching pad for the propagation of the Gospel.

Wow!  If the believers of Paul’s day could pray for a leader like Nero—a man who was bent on torturing and killing them, then there is no legitimate reason I can come up with to resist genuinely praying for the men, and perhaps women, who are or will be my president.

I am obligated to pray, intercede, and be grateful to God on their behalf.  When I do, I demonstrate that I am a believer not just with a political view, but a citizen with a kingdom view.  And better still, I invite Divine pleasure into my life by taking such a godly posture.

I don’t know about you, but I think I will pray for my leaders today!

“The government of the United States is acknowledged by the wise and good of other nations, to be the most free, impartial, and righteous government of the world; but all agree, that for such a government to be sustained many years, the principles of truth and righteousness, taught in the Holy Scriptures, must be practiced.”  ~Emma Willard, 1843 

Prayer… Heavenly Father, I lift the political candidates of both parties, as well as the President and the leaders of Congress before your throne. I pray for their wellbeing and wisdom. Give them courage and resolve to do the right thing. I ask that you use them as your instruments to create the kinds of conditions in which the Gospel will best grow. Thank you for them. Bless them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

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Even Dirty Rotten Sinners

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: I Timothy 1
Meditation: I Timothy 1:15-16

“‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.”

Shift Your Focus… If God could save Paul, God can save anyone.  He was a super-pious religious zealot who thought he was doing God a favor each time he imprisoned, persecuted, or killed a Christian.  He was intolerant, close-minded, bigoted, and arrogant—on a good day.

And yet God reached him. Actually God slapped him up side the head on the Damascus Road one day. You can read that dramatic story in Acts 9.  Paul was radically and completely transformed by his encounter with the risen Savior.  He had met Jesus, and in that meeting, he didn’t stand a chance. He became a trophy of God’s grace.

Now the truth is, you weren’t any better off that the pre-converted Paul before God found you. Neither was I. We were dirty rotten sinners, too, but now we are trophies of God’s grace. We were messed up, sin prone, hell bound sinners who deserved nothing but eternal punishment. But we were just the kind of people that Jesus came into this world to redeem. And for that, you and I will give thanks before the throne of God for all eternity.

So here’s the deal: If God could save dirty, rotten sinners like Paul, you and me, he can save that resistant sinner who lives in the same house as you, or who lives next door, or who goes to your school, or works in the office next to you. You have been praying for them, but there seems to be no response, no interest, not even the slightest crack in their spiritual armor.

Don’t give up!  They may be just a persistent prayer or a kind act or a verbal witness away from getting totally messed up through a radically transforming encounter with Jesus. That’s why he came: To save sinners just like them. He saved Paul, didn’t he?  He saved you, didn’t he?

Maybe that dirty rotten sinner you’re praying for is next!

“Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God.  Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved.  Now choose what you want.” ~Martin Luther

Prayer… Dear Father, thank you for your redeeming grace in my life.  I will never get over that.  Throughout eternity I will fall before your throne in humble gratitude for saving me, the worst of sinners.  Now Lord, release your saving grace to those dear people in my life who do not know you.  Confront them with your love—today.  Make them the newest trophies of your grace.

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Loving Correction

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: II Corinthians 13
Meditation: II Corinthians 13:7

“We pray to God that you will not do what is wrong by refusing our correction.”

Shift Your Focus… I want you to think of the word “loving” in the title of this Blog both as an adjective and as a verb. Both are essential to a healthy Christian life. Correction administered in love is absolutely vital to our spiritual growth. Likewise, an attitude that gratefully, willingly and lovingly embraces discipline is absolutely vital to our spiritual growth. As authentic Christ followers, we need loving discipline and we need to love discipline.

Think back to the discipline that was administered in your life. If you came from a healthy family, you will have to admit that even though it was unpleasant at the time, and perhaps even administered in less that perfect ways, being corrected was good for you in the long run.

I received a lot of discipline when I was growing up—and I was deserving of it! I can’t tell you how many times my father would say before he corrected me, “Son, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” I never bought that line, until I became a parent. Then I understood exactly what he meant.

A good and loving parent never enjoys administering discipline, but neither do they shy away from it because they know it is essential to the life, health, growth and success of their child. So as best they understand how it should be administered, the parent lovingly corrects their child for their own good.

On the other end of the stick, the child certainly doesn’t enjoy discipline either. But hopefully, at some point along the way, they begin to understand their parent is disciplining them out of love, concern and with their best interest in mind. A healthy and maturing child, then, will lovingly and gratefully submit to the parent’s correction.

As it is in a human family, so it is in a spiritual family, the church. Spiritual leaders have a Biblical charge to discipline members of the flock when necessary. If a leader fails in this regard, they are not a good spiritual leader and are derelict in their duty. Furthermore, a failure to discipline spiritually will result in a failure to thrive among God’s people; they will never grow into maturity, unity and effectiveness.

I think you would agree that correction in God’s family is essential. So now the question is, how do you respond to it when it comes your way? I hope you are not like a lot of people who applaud tough truth until it is applied to them.

I want to challenge you as Paul challenged the Corinthians: Don’t get caught up in wrong by refusing discipline! I can assure you that when your spiritual leader has to bring discipline into your life, it is born out of Biblical duty, it is carried forth in love, and it will hurt them every bit as much to administer it as it hurts to receive it. So don’t refuse it by getting mad, causing problems or running off to another church. That is far too common and far too easy, and it won’t produce growth in your life.

As strange as this may sound, develop a love for correction. Don’t go out of your way to become a candidate for it, but learn to embrace it. You won’t thrive without it. Proverbs 12:1 puts it this way,

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but he who hates correction is stupid!”

Loving correction—thank God for it!  Loving correction—yes I do!

“Life is tons of discipline.” — Robert Frost

Prayer… Lord, give me the wisdom and the courage to embrace correction from spiritual leaders, not only in Biblical theory, but in the daily reality of my life.  And give them the courage to administer it with wisdom, courage, and love.

 

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All-Sufficient Grace

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: II Corinthians 12
Meditation: II Corinthians 12:7-10

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Shift Your Focus… Do you ever wonder why God allows you to struggle with certain things? Perhaps there is a physical limitation from which you have asked God time and again to heal you, but to no avail. Maybe there is a limitation in your ability to learn or speak or a lack of confidence in interacting with others that holds you back vocationally or relationally, and you have desperately sought for God to give you victory over it, but to no avail. Perhaps there has been a struggle with a particular sin over the years, and you have agonized in prayer that God would remove it, but your prayers seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

The Apostle Paul had something like that going on in his life, too. He called it a “thorn in my flesh”. He saw it as a direct assault from Satan. And he prayed intensely that God would deliver him from whatever it was. There has been speculation as to what the thorn in the flesh actually was. Many think it was a physical malady. Tradition tells us that Paul had plenty of physical limitations. Some think the “thorn” was a person who was opposing Paul and his work. Then there are a few who surmise that it was a temptation to which Paul was particularly susceptible. Who knows for sure, but what we do know is that it was really bugging Paul—to the point that he felt frustrated enough to get really serious before God about it.

One of the things I appreciate about Paul is his ability to gain an eternal perspective on things. He was able to re-theologize the negative circumstances in his life to where he could see the mighty hand of God aligning things for his benefit. Such was the case here. If God saw fit to leave this pesky thorn in Paul’s side, then God must have a purpose. And the purpose in this case, he finally figured out, was to keep him from conceit, since throughout his ministry he had been given so many unusual experiences in the supernatural dimension that it would have been easy to become spiritually prideful. Paul needed a little humility, and God gave him a thorn to keep him weak, and therefore humble, in a particular area.

But it wasn’t just humility for humility’s sake that Paul needed, God wanted Paul to come into a much more important understanding of how the Kingdom of God works. God wanted Paul to have a firsthand experience of grace. Paul was the Apostle of grace, so through this experience where all he could do to survive was depend on God’s unmerited favor, he learned to hang on to grace for dear life. Paul learned one of the most important lessons a Christian can ever learn: Through grace, our weaknesses are parlayed into God’s supernatural strength, which enables us to achieve kingdom success that result in all the credit going to God.

That’s why Paul could be grateful for his weakness. That’s why he could tolerate his thorn. That’s why he could turn his disadvantage into an advantage. Satan afflicted him with a thorn, but God watered it with grace and it budded into a rose. Charles Spurgeon wrote,

“Soar back through all your own experiences. Think of how the Lord has led you in the wilderness and has fed and clothed you every day. How God has borne with your ill manners, and put up with all your murmurings and all your longings after the ‘sensual pleasures of Egypt!’ Think of how the Lord’s grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles.”

God’s grace is sufficient—always. It was sufficient for Paul. And because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and because he loves you just as much as he did Paul, God’s grace will be sufficient for you! Start looking at your thorn from a different perspective. It might hurt a little—or a lot—but God is going to use your present struggle to achieve an eternal glory that will far outweigh any discomfort you feel in the present.

In that sense, go ahead and glory in your weakness, for when you are weak, God is strong.

“To all who find their days declining, to all upon whom age is creeping with its infirmities, to all whose strength seems steadily to ebb…God seems to take our last things, and as it were, pack them up for our journey. These are tokens that you are approaching land. They are signs that the troubles of the sea are almost over.”  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Prayer… Lord, thank you that in my weakness, I receive your strength!  Thorns may pierce me, but they drive me to you, and into a deeper experience of your grace than I would have known without them.  In my weakness your sufficient grace is revealed, and I am strengthened to overcome.  You bring victory out of defeat in such a way that all the credit goes to you.  Therefore I will boast all the more that in my weakness, I am strong in your strength.

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Scars and Stripes

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: II Corinthians 11
Meditation: II Corinthians 11:30

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

Shift Your Focus… II Corinthians is a unique letter in that Paul spends much of his time defending his apostolic ministry to the church at Corinth. Apparently, other so-called “apostles” had wormed their way into the church and were not only leading the believers away from their pure and sincere devotion to Christ (10:3), they were gaining credibility for their own authority by putting down Paul’s credibility and authority. And, judging from the undertones in this letter, it had been working.

Paul, being a spiritual father to these Corinthian believers, had to take drastic action to remind them of his “street cred” — how he had earned his stripes as an apostle. While the false apostles were bragging about their superior spirituality and awe-inspiring ministry gifts, Paul began to list his own ministry accomplishments — things that most ministers would never brag about:

  • I’ve been in prison more times
  • I’ve been beaten more times
  • I’ve faced death on several occasions
  • I’ve received 39 lashes five times
  • I’ve been pummeled with rods three times
  • I’ve been stoned once
  • I’ve been shipwrecked three times
  • I’ve spent a day and a night drifting at sea
  • I’ve faced life-threatening floods
  • I’ve faced robbers
  • I’ve endured sleepless nights
  • I’ve gone without food and water
  • I’ve experienced hypothermic conditions
  • And if all that weren’t enough, I’ve had to worry about you being deceived by these “super apostles”.

Quite a résumé, isn’t it! There is probably not a church in America today that would hire Paul to be their pastor. Boasting about spending more time in jail than the other pastoral candidates probably wouldn’t win many points with a pulpit committee.

Yet Paul finds his sufferings for the cause of Christ to be the basis for boasting. And I think he has pretty firm ground to stand on before the Lord. One day when we stand before Christ, he will say, “Show me your scars” rather than, “show me your stars.”  It will be the sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears more than the attainment of money, fame and power that will carry credibility with the Lord.

Perhaps that’s how we ought to evaluate spiritual authority and ministry success—by how much suffering for Christ has been endured.

Let me suggest that beginning today, you start evaluating your Christian experience from that perspective. Assess your own walk with God in terms of what it is costing rather than what you are gaining. Evaluate the ministries you are enamored with by how God has strengthened them in their weaknesses rather than how much they have accomplished through their own charisma, charm, wealth and power.

I am not suggesting that we should go out of our way to suffer. What I am saying is that every once in a while, the life of faith probably ought to get us into some of the same kind of hot water Paul often found himself in.

So if there is any cause for boasting, let it be our scars, not our stars!

“They gave our Master a crown of thorns.  Why do we hope for a crown of roses?”  ~Martin Luther

Prayer… Lord, what I love so dearly about you are the scars on your nail-pierced hands and feet, the stripes on your back and the wounds on your brow that your bore on the cross for me. Without your scars, you would not be my Savior. So why would I not evaluate my own life that way…by my scars and not my stars? Why do I look at the glamour and the glitz of a ministry to determine its value rather than the sacrifice that it has endured? Help me to change my perspective. Help me to see things as you see them. Help me to celebrate what you celebrate. Help me to embrace what you embrace. If I boast, Lord, may I boast in the things that show how your strength is revealed in my weakness!

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Weapons of Spiritual Warfare

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: II Corinthians 10
Meditation: II Corinthians 10:4

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

Shift Your Focus… Are you up against a stronghold?  Perhaps it is a troublesome spouse or a rebellious child or an overbearing boss.  Maybe it’s a crippling disease or a shaky economy or an uncooperative job market.  Whatever your stronghold is, in reality, there is an unseen spiritual enemy behind it masking as a real human being or a challenging circumstance.

If you are going to experience a spiritual breakthrough with your stronghold, then Paul says you will need to employ the spiritual weapons that God has put at your disposal.  Those weapons are not carnal.  In other words, sheer force of will, rational argumentation, personal discipline, financial resources alone cannot secure your victory.  Rather, the weapons you must use are spiritual in nature, but they are powerful. They pack a divine punch that will destroy the demonic strongholds that are behind those challenging relationships and difficult circumstances that you are facing.

What are those weapons?  First and foremost is the weapon of prayer.  It is through prayer that we access the power of God to overcome all the attacks of the enemy.  Samuel Chadwick preached, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

Why does Satan do everything in his power to keep us from prayer?  Because prayer works!

The second weapon is the Word of God. Divine truth will expose Satan’s chief strategy, which is deception. Satan is the “father of lies,” and he is effective only as we remain in the dark as to who we really are, what we really have, and what we can really do in Jesus Christ. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.

The third weapon is the authority of the name of Jesus.  All the demons of hell tremble at that name.  It is at the name of Jesus that everything must bow in submission.  It is in the name of Jesus that we have authority to pray.  It is in the name of Jesus that doors must open, demons must flee, and answer must come.  We must learn to live and pray in Jesus name, otherwise we will live well below our capacity for Divine provision, blessing, freedom and favor.

The fourth weapon is the righteousness of Christ that we wear as a breastplate. It is Christ’s righteousness, imputed to us at salvation, which makes us not only holy before God, it likewise empowers us to live a life of integrity and purity in our daily journey. Christ’s righteousness, worked out in our own daily righteousness, keeps us from being vulnerable to an enemy looking to exploit any chink in our armor.

We were made to win! God has given us every weapon that we need to live the victorious Christian life.  These are our weapons of mass destruction.  Now we’ve just got to make sure we use them.

“The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came…Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory.” ~R.A. Torrey

Prayer… Lord, in you I am completely victorious.  You are my shield and my strength.  Through you I will overcome.  You have provided every weapon to destroy the enemy’s efforts to destroy me.  By your Spirit, through your Word, in the name of Jesus, and by his blood that makes me righteous I am more than a conqueror.  Thank you for guaranteeing and securing my victory.

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How God Wants You To Give

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: II Corinthians 9
Meditation: II Corinthians 9:7-8

“Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need you will abound in every good work.”

Shift Your Focus… Paul has been teaching the Corinthian Christians for two whole chapters now about the ministry of giving, and he gives some pretty clear guidelines as to how God desires us to give.

First, you are to give authentically.  No one should tell you how to give or how much to give—not even the preacher.  “You are to decide” about giving, Paul says.  You need to dig way down deep and come to grips with the ministry of giving, until it is a value that drives your stewardship.

Second, you are to give eagerly.  Give because you really love God and want to demonstrate your love with a tangible expression of your devotion to him.  Don’t do it because it will make you feel better, ease your guilt or make you look good.

Don’t do it just because you feel pressured to give, like the little boy who misquoted the verse, “Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not repulsively or under convulsions.”  Instead, you are to give because it’s just the right thing to do.  Give because it is the nature of love to give.  Give because it is consistent with Christian character. Give from a convinced heart.  If your gift doesn’t send the message of genuine desire, it won’t count for love.

Third, you are to give delightfully.  Why? “For God loves a cheerful giver.”  A truly authentic and heartfelt giver will enjoy giving the gift.  They don’t think of giving as a loss or a requirement or a burden, rather they think of the joy it brings and the love it communicates to the recipient.  That’s what Hebrews 12:2 says about Jesus, our example of joyful generosity, “For the joy set before him, endured the cross,” which was the ultimate act of giving.

Fourth, you are to give expectantly.  Paul teaches that when you give in a way that is pleasing to the Lord—authentically, altruistically, and joyfully—God will make sure that you will always have plenty to give away:  “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”    As someone has wisely pointed out, “Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.”

What a privilege it is to give back to God.  When we get giving right, God makes sure we ourselves will abound in every good work.

“Since much wealth too often proves a snare and an encumbrance in the Christian’s race, let him lighten the weight by ‘dispersing abroad and giving to the poor’, whereby he will both soften the pilgrimage of his fellow travelers, and speed his own way the faster.”  ~Augustus Toplady

Prayer… Lord, you are the Supreme Giver.  You gave your best, you gave your all, you gave yourself.  From the depth of my heart, I thank you.  It is now my honor and joy to give back to you.  May the sacrifice of my offerings be acceptable worship pleasing to you.