Posted on Oct 25, 2022 in BLOG, Devotions, General |
By Rev. Sunil Balasundaram
Tuesday, Galatians 1:2-5
Bible Passage
“Grace and peace” is part of Paul’s greetings in all of his letters – in that order. We know that Grace is God’s unconditional, undeserved, surprising love – manifested most clearly in Jesus Christ – his life, death and resurrection – all for our sakes. There is no human element in God’s Grace – it is all his initiative and doing. We can experience this grace only when we open our lives to him, and allow him to flood in (because that’s the force of grace!). And here’s the thing: when we allow this love to flood into us, and keep filling us, we experience the fullness of the Almighty, his blessing, his abiding Presence. And that is the essence of shalom, peace. Maybe that’s why Paul wished “grace and peace” to all who received his letters – that is God’s will for every one of us.
Have you experienced grace, and continuing to do so? What about peace? Is God filling your life to fullness?
Prayer
Gracious and loving God: I need you – your unconditional, underserved love; not just once, but again and again. I know that when I am filled with your love I will be filled with YOU! I want to be so filled with your fullness my Jesus that there is no space for irritation, conflict, despair, hopelessness – they will all be pushed out by your Presence. I want to know your peace, the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), a peace that heals, that hopes. You said in your Word that that was your will for me. I yearn for that now. Amen.
Song: “Grace and Peace” (Fernando Ortega)
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Posted on Oct 24, 2022 in BLOG, Devotions, General |
By Rev. Sunil Balasundaram
Monday, Galatians 1:1
Bible Passage
It is often argued that Paul was that twelfth apostle that replaced Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus and then committed suicide. Paul himself says that his calling and commissioning came directly from Jesus and God the Father. He is referring of course to his “Damascus Road” experience in Acts 9. He also makes two other points about his calling and commissioning: there were no human intermediaries involved; and he was called by no less than the Resurrected One.
Why did Paul introduce himself so? How important is it that we know that we are specifically called and commissioned by God? What part do other humans play in that calling (after all Ananias did play a part cf. Acts 9:15-17)? How does the Resurrection effect what your purpose?
Prayer: Thank you Almighty God for making me “fearfully and wonderfully” (Psalm 139:14). You know me from the inside out; you know my strengths, but you know (more than even I) my weaknesses and failings. And yet you sent your Son Jesus to die for me; that I may be made new through believing in his death and resurrection for my sake. And even more than that you have chosen me to be a daughter, a son. And if that was not enough you called me, entrusted me with your gospel of grace to be shared with others, that same grace that saved me, made me your child, and called me to be a “sent one” myself. May I never minimize what you have given me O generous, loving God. Amen.
Song: “Abide” (Aaron Williams. One of my favorites that I sing every day)
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Posted on Jul 26, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 5:1-6
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
James can be brutally honest when he writes, but he does so just as Jesus did – in love. He moves to another delicate area where the follower of Christ needs to grow in maturity: in the way we relate to our possessions. He warns us that the more possessions we have, the more does the desire to own more creep into our lives. And it happens in four ways – we are tempted to hoard (vs.2-3), to be unjust and defraud the vulnerable (v.4), to indulge ourselves (v.5), to even betray those without fault only because they did not pander to our desires. Ultimately he is reinforcing what Jesus said: “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24). Maturity shows in what or who I choose to be my real treasure: what I possess…or the God who loves me and treasures me.
Prayer
Lord, it is so easy to be owned by my possessions, instead of it being the other way around. I justify it by calling it being worldly-wise, or financially savvy, or securing my future. But all it does is take my focus off You (the Giver) and direct it on to the possessions You give (the gifts). And without my realizing it I stop being generous, because all I am looking out for is myself. Possessions and wealth can be so blinding – but You warned me, haven’t You Jesus? Forgive me. I once again turn my eyes on You…Amen.
Listen to Song
Posted on Jul 25, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 4:13-17
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
James shows me how wisdom and humility are so closely linked. Pride blocks God’s purpose (that His wisdom reveals) from becoming real in our lives. James is not saying that we shouldn’t plan for the future. What he is saying is that when I do all the planning for my future, I am living according to my purposes, and I am in control. And that is not God’s wisdom but an attitude of arrogance, and sinful. Humility reveals that God in His love has a purpose for my future. And when I live for that purpose I am doing the right thing, I am living a life that will not “vanish like a mist,” and I am living depending on God’s resources.
Prayer
Gracious God, how silly of me to think I can control my future. But the alternative of “no control” fills me with fear of the unknown. Forgive me for my pride that gives me the false security in my own human resources. And thank You for showing me that there is another alternative – that of faith and wisdom. I believe that You have a purpose for my life in Christ, and that I can depend on You to provide the means to fulfill it. All I need is to be obedient…and humble. Amen.
Listen to Song
Posted on Jul 23, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 4:11-12
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
Reminder: There will be NO daily devotion tomorrow, Sunday. Hopefully most of you will join us through our Live Stream Worship and listen to God yourselves. Come with open hearts!
Remember what James’ prime concern in his letter is: that the follower of Christ be “mature and complete, lacking nothing” (1:4) by putting faith into action (2:14-26). Small things “derail” this goal. When we say things against our “neighbor” to bring them down rather than build them up, we are really acting superior to them, allowing pride to take control. It doesn’t matter even if what is said is true. If our intent is to bring the other down, we are putting ourselves in a position of being judges over them thereby negating God’s grace for us, breaking Jesus’ “royal law” (2:8), and not humbling ourselves. The question then is: what do we say that builds others up, therefore building ourselves in the process (2 Corinthians 13:10-11)?
Prayer
Forgive me Lord, it is so easy to criticize someone else’s failings, forgetting that is my past and present as well. It is so easy to slip from humbling myself to feeling superior to others with failings I don’t have. Remind me Jesus that each time I become a “judge” to others I not only break your “royal law” to love my neighbors as myself, I also end up loving you less. I want to be just like you. So teach me, help me how to only be a “builder of others.” Amen.
Posted on Jul 22, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 4:5-10
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
And so we come to the only verse in James that actually uses the word “grace,” which is God’s undeserved, unlimited, unconditional love and favor, shown most completely in the person and work of Jesus Christ. James so desperately wants us to understand that there is really only one thing that we have to do to truly receive and experience the grace that God so generously gives. We need to humble ourselves. Humility is the one thing that God does not give us. Putting ourselves second (or last), considering the “other” better than myself, embracing an attitude of submission to someone more worthy than I – only I can do that; that’s part of God’s love gift of freedom that He has given us humans. It involves surrender, confession, tears, and a turning to God, and a yearning for Him. But the beauty is in the joy that comes after that – when He lifts us into His arms!
Prayer
I can call it by other names, O Lord, but I know that it is my pride that prevents me from fully experiencing Your gift of grace. You will never force me to see myself as I really am – broken, messed up, sinful, needy. But, I now recognize that only when I give up my hold on myself, that I can actually see myself through Your eyes – a child of Your love. As I draw nearer to You in humility, the devil flees, but so does my pride, my pain, my past (and all the sin it contained). And so, O Lamb of God, I come…Amen.
Listen to Song
Posted on Jul 21, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 4:1-5
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
God created me and saved me not only to be His child, but His friend! And He takes our friendship seriously. Maybe that’s why anything that goes against that relationship sours up, because real friendship puts the relationship first, over myself. And, when I become self-oriented, self-centered, as the rest of the world wants and is, I end up acting against God and our friendship. God longs for me to yearn for what His will is, even as He wants what is best for me. Isn’t that what real friendship is?
Prayer
Wow! Almighty God, You want me to be Your friend? That’s why You made me, sent Jesus to die for me, gave Your Holy Spirit to be in me? How can I be so senseless to want the trivial things the world entices me with, when I have all of You? Forgive me Loving God. Open all my senses to experience what You have for me, that I may desire You and what You will with my entire being. Amen.
Listen to Song
Posted on Jul 20, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 3:13-18
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
A simple understanding of the word “righteousness” in the Bible is “to live in a right relationship with God.” This happens only by grace, when we trust in what Jesus has done for us on the cross, and depend on what the Holy Spirit does in and through our changed lives. This trusting and depending is at the heart of what James calls wisdom that comes from above. Wisdom is when we allow the Holy Spirit to take all our knowledge (of God and the world), intelligence, experiences, and use them to bring meaning and direction into our lives. It is God’s resource for maturity through adversity (1:2-8), and here it is His prescription for living a “good life” that is full of godly fruit (v.17). Is that the wisdom I desire more than anything else?
Prayer
O God of mercy, shield me from the “wisdom” that is not from You: the kind that is self-promoting, divisive, even devilish. I open myself to Your Holy Spirit. Work in me so that not only will I experience the good life You want me to have, Your wisdom through me will bring Your peace, one-ness, wholeness in the lives of all those around me. Amen.
Posted on Jul 19, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 3:1-12
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
We live in an age where what we say – words – don’t matter much. And that is unfortunate, because in Jesus’ and James’ “Kingdom world”, that is blatantly (and hellishly) false! Why? Two reasons – words reveal first the standard (and character) of God, and second the heart of humans. James has already written about God’s “word of truth”, which has the power to change us (1:18). And the New Testament again and again talks about “truth” as central to the gospel and its place in Christian behavior. As to the second, didn’t Jesus say “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them” (Matthew 15:18)? James uses multiple examples of horses, ships, forest fires, taming of wild creatures, and underground springs to prove his point. The use of words reflect the “maturity and completeness” of the Christ-follower (cf. 1:4; 3:2, where “perfect” is to be understood as “complete”), and so be care-full in what you say!
Prayer
Lord, I did not realize that my words reveal not just the power of your “word of Truth,” but also the extent that “word of Truth” has changed my heart, my life. Forgive me when my words have given a false witness of You, who I say I follow. Forgive me for condoning (and even making excuses) when others have spoken against the truth, and thereby spoken against You. Please grow me by teaching me to use my words as you used them Jesus, making each word count for You. Maybe then I’ll come to understand that whether I know it or not, I become a teacher as well. Amen.
Listen to Song
Posted on Jul 18, 2022 in Devotions, General, Today, Yesterday |
“James”
by, Pastor Sunil Balasundaram
Scripture
Go to James 2:20-26
(Please read the passage before, or after, reading the devotion.)
“You senseless person” (v.20). Do I detect a sense of urgency in James’ tone? Again, James is not saying that anyone can get right with God by doing good works (please read the last devotion again). But he is emphasizing that what you do will be the natural result of what you believe (or who you believe in). Both Abraham (Genesis 22) and Rahab (Joshua 2) had decided in their hearts who they believed in, who they wanted to follow – Yahweh God, the God that Jesus called “father.” By their (subsequent) actions they showed what (and who) they had believed in their hearts even before that. James’ simple logic says that just as lives without God make us like spiritual “zombies” (the walking dead), faith is lifeless without that faith showing itself in obedience. So, how “alive” is your faith?
Prayer
Thank you for James’ honesty when it comes to our faith, Lord. But I know your (and his) intention is not to discourage us. I realize it is to remind us how real your love is, how present you want to be in every aspect of our lives. You want us to experience what faith really can do, if we put it into action. It will not only change us entirely, it will change those around us as well. Please grow my faith O God; I want to be “mature and complete” as you intend me to be. Amen.
