GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Deuteronomy 5:32 (NIV)

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Occasionally, I sign my letters, “In his grip.” I started doing it during a tough time in life when I realized God had me in his grip with a strength that would never let me go. I could not run for him or hide from him.

Echoing Peter’s statement to Jesus, “I had nowhere else to go” (John 6:68), and wrapped in the strength of his grip was the calling he’d place on my life. I kept trying to get away, but, in a sense, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long” (Psalm 32:3 NIV).

God told Jeremiah that, even before he placed the prophet in his mother’s womb, he had a plan for the poet. And Jeremiah followed that calling, until he, twice, told God he wanted to quit.

God, I can’t.

God told Jeremiah that he had his hand on him, and that he couldn’t quit.

Jeremiah, I can.

God created Jeremiah for a purpose. Jeremiah was part of God plan, just like you are part of God’s plan. He was a voice for God, needed in that specific time and place. You are no less.

God leads us; he goes before and behind us. He can, even though we can’t.

And that is why “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:38-39 MSG).

In his grip.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 2 Corinthians 5:16 (NIV)

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Growing up, I considered my older brother the embodiment of cool. Cole was funny, handsome, athletic, and popular. He married the homecoming queen and then became an Air Force pilot.

Because I grew up feeling like an outsider, I often wished I could be like my brother, who seemed accepted and liked by just about everyone. One summer, I stayed a few weeks with my brother, and while we were at a restaurant with his many pilot friends and their wives, Cole said, “I think Jon would fit in well with our group.”

Those words count among the most meaningful ever said to me. My cool brother was telling me I was accepted, and his cool friends agreed with him.

All of us have felt the sting of rejection. Perhaps you were the last one picked on the ball field, or maybe you were told you’d never measure up.

Perhaps you struggled through an unrequited love, or maybe the company you poured your life into let you go with all the flourish and finesse of a guillotine.

The good news is Jesus accepts “rejects.” Throughout the New Testament Jesus didn’t care who you were or where you’d been - thieves, prostitutes, sleazy bill collectors, lepers, or the poor.

And he also accepts nerds, geeks and freaks, people with zits, split ends, flat chests, or beer bellies. He accepts people who don’t have any friends, and those who have an abundance of friends. He accepts people who’ve made mistakes and those who will never admit they make mistakes.

Our lesson from Jesus is that he sees every person as an individual - valuable, important, and created by God. Jesus looks past the surface, deep into our very souls, and yet he still loves us and accepts us.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

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On my most recent birthday, my sister sent me this message -

The bad news: “Therefore we do not lose heart, even though outwardly we are wasting away . . .”

Did I mention this is my older sister, and as I like to remind her, she will always be my older sister?

But she also added -

The good news:  “. . . even though outwardly we are wasting away, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

God’s mercies are fresh each morning, and by God’s Spirit, we are renewed within each day. Every day we come closer and closer to being one like Christ, and every day our hearts get closer to matching the beat of God’s heart.

We may be wasting away on the outside, but our spirit is renewed day by day and our connection to God never grows old.

If you have creaky joints, arthritic hands, weakened eyes, a slow step, an ear that struggles to hear, or a heart that beats to the sound of a cholesterol drummer, be encouraged!

God is preparing a grand birthday-like celebration for the day you arrive in heaven, where you’ll no longer age because you’ll be home in the land of the ageless.

“Worship GOD in adoring embrace, Celebrate in trembling awe” (Psalm 2:11 MSG).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11 (NIV)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

Jesus loves me, even more than I love myself. He proves this by laying down his life for me (John 15:13).

He has my best interest in mind, even though it may not appear that way at times. God’s plans are to prosper me, not to harm me; to give me hope and a future with him (Jeremiah 29:11).

My Father knows how to give good gifts, even more than me. If, as a human easily led astray, I know how to love my children and to give them good gifts, how much more will my Father in heaven lavish them on me (Matthew 7:11).

In faith, I believe this to be so.

Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV).

In faith, I believe this to be so.

God is love, and in his love I find perfect peace. I am able to love because “God is love,” and “God lives in [me] and his love is made complete in [me]” (1 John 4:8, 12 NIV).

When I love in the center of God’s love, trusting the truth of his love, he will keep me in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).

And as I live in peace, the “God of love and peace will be with [me]” (2 Corinthians 13:11 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 (NIV)

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Jesus said no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13), but Jesus laid down his life for more, including enemies, adversaries, and rebels.

His greater love now lives inside us, it abides in us, with the objective to move us toward laying down our lives for others in the same way Jesus did: “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:15 NLT).

This greater love may not require that we die physically for others, but it does require that we lay down our demands for life on our own terms, our agendas to control, our needs to be noticed (suggested by Hebrews 12:4).

When others block our demands, frustrate our agendas, or neglect our needs, our tendency is to complain: “God, what are you going to do with these disagreeable people?”

Yet, if we’ll be still, and know he is God (Psalm 46:10), we might hear him respond, “I already did something. I laid down my life for them. Will you do the same?”

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene . . . Isaiah 59:16 (NIV)

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Most of our prayers are of the low order, or maybe more like the fast-food order.

We pull up to the drive-thru and yell out our requests to God, and then expect him to have our order ready by the time we pull up to the window.

Yet, God’s view of prayer seems far above the utilitarian. He calls us to a violent form of intercession, where we take on the spiritual forces of darkness on behalf of our race, once invaded, now occupied by the prince of darkness.

Paul teaches us to put on the whole armor of God. If you follow the sequence of his instruction, we’re suiting up for battle so we can stand firm in prayer (Ephesians 6).

We prayer for others like Jesus would pray for them, thinking about them the way he would think, covering them with prayer, protecting them through prayer, and advocating for them in the same way Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and advocates for us.

It is other-centered prayer on the extreme end of “other.”

Isaiah describes God as “appalled” no one was interceding for his people. We have the ability - more appropriately, the duty - to intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters (Isaiah 59:16 NIV).

And we do not do this alone, for the Lord is already interceding and we are simply joining him. Like the armor Paul describes for us, the Lord is suited for battle. Isaiah says:

“He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak” (Isaiah 59:17 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (NIV)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

By God’s grace, I am becoming other-centered, no longer focused on the interest of self.

I can look out for the interested of others because I know it is true that God will supply all my needs, according to his riches (Philippians 4:19).

In faith, I know it is true that I can give more than people expect; I can help more than people may request. I am ready and enabled by God to give to anyone who asks (Matthew 5:40-42).

The life of Jesus in me is working to “do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18 NIV).

And again and again, I will stand on the truth that God will meet all my needs; therefore, I can keep an intentional focus on supplying the needs of others (Philippians 4:19).

I am like Jesus when I look to the needs of others.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. Romans 5:7 (NIV)

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The love of God needs no because. He does not give his love because of something that you’ve done. He does not give his love because of something he will gain. He does not give his love because it’s something you have earned.

He gives his love with no because.

We come at love with conditions: you can take it or leave it.

God comes at love with no conditions: I’ll take you and I won’t leave you.

We might, in rare instances, show love by dying for someone we deem worthy. God, in all instances, showed love by dying for us, even when we were still drawing blood from his love (Romans 5:7-8).

When we were still in rebellion against God’s love, Jesus said, “I lay down my life . . . . No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:17-18 NIV).

I lay it down, Jesus says, with no need for because.

“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Luke 6:35 (NIV)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

By God’s grace, I am able to love with abandonment, fully positioned in the center of “other.”

This other-centered love is unconditional; it makes no attempt to force people to do things, or to control them (Romans 12:19). Instead, in faith, I believe God’s love is more powerful than any force in all eternity (1 Corinthians 13:13).

By God’s grace, my love is filled with patience, kindness, encouragement, humility, service, trust, truth, hope, perseverance, and joy, and by covering the wrongs of those I love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).

By God’s grace, my love is sincere, serves with zeal, and is Spirit-directed. My love is faithful in prayer, generous in invitation, and full of blessings for those who oppose me. I cry with others, and I laugh with others, and I live in harmony, as best I can while loving from the center of God’s love (Romans 12:9-21).

My love proves me to be a child of God because I am kind to the wicked and ungrateful, and I still love, without expecting anything in return (Luke 6:35).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. Ephesians 6:10 (MSG)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

God is strong, and he wants me strong.

Because God is strong, he can make me strong: “If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty!” (Job 9:19 NIV).

Though my health seems weak, God will make me strong because he is strong.

Though I am exhausted, God will make me strong because he is strong.

God is strong and he wants me strong as I press on with my purpose: “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8 NIV).

God is strong and he wants me strong to go where he wants me to go: “Be strong and very courageous. … Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go” (Joshua 1:7 NIV).

God is strong and he wants me strong so I can stay focused on my heavenly journey: “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8 NIV).

God is strong and so I am strong, knowing that he is with me always: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21 (NIV)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

God manages circumstances.

Whether I turn to the right or to the left, my ears will hear a voice behind me, saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21 NIV).

He makes my paths straight as I lean on him and acknowledge him (Proverbs 3:5-6). He’s placed a hedge around me and he blesses the work of my hands (Job 1:10).

God says he is the only one capable of interpreting circumstances: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways . . . . As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV).

When I see the circumstances the way God does, he says, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12 NIV).

Praise God! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:34 NIV).

He sees the path before us, and calls us forth in faith (Genesis 22:12), showing us there are no coincidences in this universe of his design: “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. 1 Samuel 15:23 (NLT)

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When we’re stubborn, we bow to the idols of self-importance, self-opinion, “I know best,” and arrogance.

We say to all, especially that annoying God who always interferes, that we’ve established our own inner rule for what is right and wrong.

When you’re stubborn, you’re in danger of being designated by such non-endearing expressions as obstinate, bullheaded, headstrong, willful, unyielding, insubordinate, cantankerous, rigid, single-minded, unbending, unyielding.

My Southern kin might say you’re contrary, ornery, and stubborn as a mule, or just plain pigheaded.

But, then, the prodigal learned that being pigheaded generally means you end up eating with the pigs.

Jesus was deeply distressed by the stubborn hearts of some Pharisees, because they were unteachable, unwilling to learn that the Spirit connected people to God, not the law (Mark 3:5).

They embodied stubbornness by showing more interest in defending a position that in determining the truth. They dug in their heels, making the need to make a point their idol. They bowed to the little god of winning over little details and little points.

Being right became their god - their idol - and that put them in the strange category of being able to get it right, yet getting it all wrong.

Exasperated, Jesus finally said, “If you had any idea what this Scripture meant - ‘I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual’ - you wouldn’t be nitpicking like this” (Matthew 12:7 MSG).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. 1 Samuel 15:23 (NKJV)

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Most of us would be shocked and angered if we found out a believer in our congregation was actively using a form of witchcraft to control people, places, things, and circumstances. In spite of our fear, we’d fight back once we learned that the witchcraft was so powerful it had entrapped whole families and small groups of people within the church.

In truth, such a form of witchcraft is present among many believers; it’s the incantation of rebellion. Why does the prophet Samuel say rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft?

It seems to me the similarity between the two is an attempt to control your circumstances independent of God. Witchcraft casts spells and summons spirits to alter the natural, and therefore, it assumes a role for which it has no authority. Rebellion uses disobedience, disharmony, and disunity to gain or maintain control of the situation.

Either way, you’re trying to rule from “I can,” rejecting any notion of “God can.” And when you do that, you’re becoming one with the enemy, aligned with the very things that are in armed rebellion against God.

These things oppose God’s order of things and his work in your life.

“Not doing what GOD tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult,” says the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 15:23 MSG).

In that light and truth, will you let God rule, or rebel to rule yourself?

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time . . . . He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” John 21:17 (NIV)

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They were standing at the Sea of Galilee and Jesus offered one more lesson to Peter that through God’s mercy and grace there was forgiveness for our sins, even those committed against Jesus on the night before his death.

Jesus pushed into what remained of Peter’s pride, pricking it in order to release the puss of guilt. He did it in three stages:

First, he asked, “Do you truly love me more than these?”

Peter looked toward the other disciples, who he always considered second to his love and loyalty for Jesus. He said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (John 21:15 NIV).

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs,” and echoing in Peter’s head was the thought: After you’ve been sifted, return to strengthen the brothers.

And, the power of the first denial drained from Peter’s body.

Next, Jesus asked, “Do you truly love me?”

Peter looked at Jesus, remembering the last time their eyes locked  he’d denied even knowing the man. Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (John 21:16 NIV).

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep” (John 21:16 NIV).

And, the power of the second denial drained from Peter’s body.

Finally, Jesus asked, “Do you love me?” (John 21:17 NIV).

Peter, hurt that Jesus would ask for a third time, felt the thrust puncture his pride, and he cried, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you” (John 21:17 NIV).

And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17 NIV).

And, the power of the third denial drained from Peter’s body.

There is always more grace than there is our sin. Rather than relegating Peter to the reject row, he gave him a job: “Get on with it, Peter. You’ve returned; you’re restored. Now strengthen the brothers. Feed my sheep.”

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Then he said to him, “Follow me!” John 21:19 (NIV)

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We believe God will forgive us; the problem, though, is we won’t forgive ourselves.

Peter knew the feeling; he’d failed Jesus, so he went back to fishing. He’d set a high standard of loyalty and love to his Lord, only to perform a belly flop off the high dive, not once, not twice, but three times.

And so it was that he’d gone back to fishing, feeling lower than a bottom fish in the Sea of Galilee.

How could Jesus forgive him, when he couldn’t even forgive himself?

But then Jesus, resurrected, yelled ahoy from the shore, and Peter, in his excitement, abandoned the boat for the speed of swimming to shore. No shout of, “If it’s you, command me to walk across the water, Lord.” Peter figured he’d have to do it on his own because he’d blown his chance for sainthood.

They ate breakfast and Peter was probably hanging back a bit with a sense of shame that lied to him, telling him he wasn’t worthy to even sit in the presence of Jesus.

Yet, Jesus, showing sweet sensitivity, reached out to Peter, knowing he was hurting and humiliated, but also knowing he’d been humbled into the “I can’t” stance.

Jesus reminded Peter that the sentence doesn’t stop at “I can’t”; it moved onto “God can.”

Standing at the Sea of Galilee, on the shore where Jesus first promised to make Peter a fisher of men, the Lord offered one more lesson: Through God’s mercy and grace - because Jesus died but was now standing alive, resurrected, before Peter - there could be forgiveness of sins and peace with God.

Jesus once again said to Peter, “Follow me!” (John 21:19 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. Luke 22:57 (NIV)

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He was ready to go to prison, even to death, with Jesus. That’s what Peter said.

But Jesus knew the truth, which was in a few dark hours, Peter would disown him. “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me” (Luke 22:34 NIV).

And at the exact moment when Peter finished saying, for the third time, “He’s a stranger to me!” the rooster took his cue and started to crow.

Jesus, in chains, looked up and locked eyes with his friend, and for the second time that night, he felt the sting of a friend betraying him. But, this time he wasn’t sold for thirty pieces of silver; this time he was sold for the price of anonymity.

And Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62).

He wept because he’d given in to fear when he knew he should have headed into faith. Like you, like me, Peter had followed his instincts for survival.

In his grief, he failed to understand something Jesus had explained at their final supper together. Jesus said he had to go away, so the Counselor would come (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit sent from God would enter the lives of those who loved Jesus, creating a direct and permanent connection between the Creator and the created.

The Holy Spirit was coming to teach and to guide, and in a very real sense, the Holy Spirit would replace instinct inside of Peter, and also in you and me. We need no longer live by impulse or instinct because God has exchanged it with the Holy Spirit.

We may still make mistakes of impulse and instinct, falling back into sinful thoughts and actions, what Corrie Ten Boom refers to as echoes of the past.

But in the present and in the future we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV).

Fitting words from Peter, written years after the night he thought he’d ruined the rest of his life here on earth and for all eternity.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32 (NIV)

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When Jesus tells this to Peter, he says, “Satan has asked to sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31 NIV).

Now, to me, it begs the question: Lord, did you have to say yes?

You may have days when you wonder if God is letting Satan sift you. You can take a God-view of it, knowing he’s always in control and that greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

A sifting brings glory to God, such as when Job still praised his maker, even when everything seemed lost and even his wife was telling him to give up on God.

A sifting also probes your weaknesses, revealing where you’re still thinking, “I can.” A good swift sift will push you to, “I can’t, but God can.”

In allowing you to be sifted, God is scraping away all the distraction and things that might hinder you from fulfilling your purpose.

The sifting to come would scrape away Peter’s stomp and snort bluster, revealing a heart that is teachable, able to welcome Cornelius and his Gentile clan into the family of God.

The way that Jesus tells Peter about the sifting has always held a special meaning to me. Jesus didn’t just say, “Get ready for a whirlwind of hurt! I know you’re going to let me down.”

Instead, Jesus points to the future: Peter would survive the sifting; he would return humbled, but stronger, with the purpose to strengthen his brothers. In a sense, “When you turn back from your turning back, you’ll be a servant who leads.”

The Lord said yes to the sifting of Peter so he would transform from a leader who served to a servant who leads, and that’s a significant shift from the thinking of men to the thinking of God.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV)

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Jesus was tempted, but he did not sin.

Jesus was tempted, but he chose not to sin, leaving him qualified to be the sacrifice for our sins.

Matthew reports, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). And Paul says Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NIV).

If Jesus was tempted, yet did not sin; then temptation is not a sin.

Our freedom to decide not to sin was bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. The temptation is the intruder who prompts us to call 911; he hasn’t stolen anything yet.

This is an important truth to understand because, if we believe temptation is sin, then we’re more likely to give in to sin, assuming we’ve already crossed the line.

If we believe temptation is sin, then we’re likely to assume there’s no use to struggle against the temptation because we think we’ve already sinned in the temptation. This helps us see why it’s so very important to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV).

Our High Priest, Jesus, knew temptation and he is now able to “sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15 NIV).

He also knows no temptation comes to us except what is common to man. “And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16:22-23 (NIV)
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Insecurity demands that I must always be in control, must always have the last word, and must always have my way.

Insecurity leads to power struggles, and the result is that we live in perpetual conflict. When pressed, we can even try to snatch something out of God’s hands, the way a child will grab something from another.

In a sense, Peter is doing just that. When Jesus explains God’s plan, including his sacrificial death, Peter tries to snatch this cosmic plan from the Lord’s hands: “Never, Lord!” he says. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:22-23 NIV).

You’ve got to feel for Peter because he’s a picture-perfect snapshot of the up-and-down struggle we have maintaining faith while living in a nasty-now-and-now world.

It wasn’t very long ago that Peter declared Jesus “the Christ, the Son of God.” And Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17 NIV).

Fast-forward a few verses and Jesus rebukes Peter for “seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s” (Matthew 16:23 NLT). “You have no idea how God works” (Matthew 16:23 MSG).

When we think like mere men, we distract ourselves from God’s plan and we get in the way of God’s purpose. Jesus’ rebuke isn’t a final statement of our dim-witted humanity; rather, it’s an exhortation than we can match our minds with God as we let the mind of Christ carry us to the things above.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Matthew 23:13 (NIV)

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Here’s a quirky snapshot to help you remember why Jesus felt such grief over the Pharisees.

Imagine you’re heading into a hotel on the invitation of the owner, who wants to get to know you. But when you get to the entrance, you find an official-looking group of men sifting through piles of files. In fact, there are so many files, they’ve had file cabinets delivered which now block the entrance to the hotel.

You tell the men you want to enter the hotel and they begin to list off a dozen or so requirements in order for you to do that. Their list is highly specific and painstakingly technical and you quickly see how difficult it will be to meet these requirements.

But the men appear to have official status so you start doing what they say. Your focus is no longer to meet with the owner, or even to gain entrance to the hotel; you’re just trying to meet all the regulations and requirements.

Suddenly, the owner appears, genuinely concerned about you, thinking something bad must have happened to make you so late. He looks at the file cabinets, the men with piles of files, and you struggling to hold the pile of files they’ve given you.

Then, he turns to the “file-pilers,” and says:

“You hypocrites! You’ve blocked the door to my hotel! You’ve made it so you can’t get in and neither can anyone else.

“If you’re concerned about requirements, let me sum them up for you: Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself, and admit that you gain entrance to the hotel through my loving generosity and not your miserly methods.”

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?” (Galatians 3:2 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, Christ himself. Colossians 2:17 (NLT)

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May you stand accused of believing in God’s grace.

Not a grace, described by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as cheap, so everything can remain as it was before: “It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.”6

Grace straps us to the law of love, binding us with the Holy Spirit to the life of Christ.

Some may think a focus on grace downgrades the law, but authentic grace upgrades sin. It agrees with God’s assessment that sin is so huge it can only be rendered powerless with a blow of blood and resurrection from the Lord.

Elevating the law above its proper place, suggests Bonhoeffer, “amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.”7

Grace cost Jesus his life, but it places the life of Christ in us, which compels us to give our lives, based on God’s grace, to others. By embracing grace, we accept the responsibility to maintain a close communion with God through the Holy Spirit.

And, if we are led by the Spirit, we’re no longer under law (Galatians 5:18).

That doesn’t mean grace ignores the law. The law is from God, and so “the law is holy . . . righteous and good” (Romans 7:12 NIV). But we’re not the ones who can fulfill the law; that is a job for Jesus: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17 NIV).

To echo Paul, God forbid that we abuse his grace! God doesn’t give us grace so we will continue to sin; he gives us grace so we’re free not to sin. He gives us grace so we can live in relationship with him, no longer in fear of separation as a consequence of our sin.

“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?” (Romans 6:1-2 MSG).

Therefore, no commandment was harmed through the deliverance of God’s grace.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

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God, who is omnipotent, sees the breadth and depth of our circumstances, and he knows his plans for our lives.

Thinking then like Christ, we can slowly, perhaps ever so slowly, begin to understand that avoiding the pain in our lives is actually an act of faithlessness.

God calls us to faith in him during difficult circumstances; yet, we place our faith in avoiding the circumstances.

Avoiding the mess - or having a bad attitude about the mess - may actually drive you away from God’s plan. Avoidance only enables you to keep your hopes hanging somewhere other than a deep, intimate relationship with the Creator.

Your perspective is important because it allows you to respond to God instead of reacting to your circumstance. This perspective lets God be your strength as he guides you to endure whatever problems you’re facing. It allows you to ask God, “What do you want me to do with this?” instead of falling into a “Why me?” trap.

Holding onto God when you’re in the middle of the mess teaches you about the faithfulness of God’s character. In the pressure cooker, your daily worship of God becomes irrevocably tied to your faith in God.

The nasty-now-and-now teaches you to praise God anyway. You mature toward the ability to make a choice to praise and worship God every day, no matter what circumstances you face in life.

Consider this question: If you believed that your current circumstances or problems were part of God’s big-picture, redemptive plan, how would you think and act differently?

(Hint: Read the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis.)

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:10 (NIV)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

I can love others as much as God loves me because God loves with his love through me. God’s love in me allows me to love others with the same love God has for them.

In faith, I believe this to be true and so I choose to love like it is true.

By God’s grace, I am resolved to love others with whatever means God gives me. I can do this because he commands, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and he would not give me a command without giving me the ability to follow it (Matthew 22:39 NIV).

I have the means to love others because it is part of a royal decree passed to me from the King of kings (James 2:8).

I have the means to love others because Jesus not only showed me how to love, he’s also placed his love in me. And he still is loving me, everyday, and loving others through me (John 13:34-36; John 15:12).

I have the means to love others because I am a fully privileged member of God’s family, and he has given me the authority to share his love with others (Romans 12:10).

By loving others, I engage the power of God’s mercy and grace while also fulfilling the law: “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NIV)

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Love succeeds at everything.

Paul described it from the other direction, saying “love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8 NIV).

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus abandoned his will to follow the Father’s will, he was placing his faith in the One whose love always wins.

And the resurrection validated Jesus’ faith.

The love of God always gets the final word.

When we practice loving one another, it doesn’t mean we practice until we get it right. That kind of practice just puts us back in the cycle of “I ought; I should; I must.” And then, if we do get it right, we applaud ourselves; but if we don’t get it right, we beat up on ourselves. And the cycle continues.

When we practice love like Jesus practiced love, then we base our love in the faith that God’s acts of love always win. What this means is that, guided by the Holy Spirit, we intentionally “keep right on loving others as long as life lasts . . .” (Hebrews 6:11 LB).

And this enlarges our capacity to know and to then express the win-win nature of God’s love.

It moves us toward an other-centered love that changes the question from “Am I looking for love?” to “Am I looking with love?”

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it . . . . But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18 (NIV)

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In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel describes the unholy madness he faced during World War II as a prisoner in the German killing-camp Auschwitz and then as one of the few survivors of a death march to the concentration camp at Buchenwald.

Wiesel, an orthodox Jew, lost his faith in God and in humanity as, day by day, he fought to survive in a catastrophic pit of hell where, as one prisoner told him, “. . . There are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone.”

When he was finally liberated by Allied Forces in 1945, Wiesel was just 16. He’d witnessed the slow death of his father; his mother and sister were presumably dead; and he felt as if everything had come to an end: “. . . Man, history, literature, religion, God. There was nothing left. And yet we begin again with night” (a reference to the Jewish tradition that a new day starts as night falls).

Wiesel records with honesty his anger at God for appearing to ignore those who cried out for the Almighty’s protection. The evil of Auschwitz and Buchenwald is so mind-wrenching there are no adjectives adequate to convey the horror.

And who can judge a crumbling faith under such circumstances, particularly when we know our faith often crumbles for far lesser things?

The stuff of faith is facing the fire, perhaps the most difficult lesson in the school of Christ. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we stand firm before the blazing furnace, confident the God we serve is able to save us, but also confident if we are not rescued, God’s thoughts for us are not evil but to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11, based on NKJV).

We may not be rescued by God, but we will continue to worship him when we allow our heartache and our horrible circumstances to crowd us closer to the One who grieves with us because he loves us more than any other and more than we could ever know.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.