INCLUSION: What is the process in your church to include new people in the life of the church and the Kingdom? Look at the process on the
“Inclusion” page at www.edhandkinsministries.com and see what you are doing, and what you may need to be doing, to do a better job of reaching and including new people.
Rob Pochek is Pastor of the Lighthouse Community Church in Nashville, Illinois.
October 14 Living to Last
…But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalms 1:2 ESV
Today’s Readings: Nehemiah 11, 12 Psalms 1 Acts 3
The older I get, the more concerned I have become about the kind of legacy that I am building. Am I living in a way that will have a lasting effect in twenty years, fifty years, and beyond?
Church history has provided us with a great example of one who has left an indelible legacy. Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah were married thirty years and had eleven children: three sons and eight daughters. A study of 1400 descendants shows one hundred lawyers, sixty-six doctors, thirteen college presidents, thirty judges, sixty-five professors, eighty public office holders, three senators, three governors, and one vice president. (William J. Petersen, "Sarah and Jonathan Edwards: An Uncommon Union," Partnership (May-June 1987), 41.)
Psalms 1 reminds us that the kind of life that lasts is the one blessed by God. This blessing results from resisting the lure of sinful and scoffing voices, and finding our great delight in the Lord himself as revealed in His word. It is this blessing that results in being fruitful and prosperous, to the glory of God.
Prayer: Ask God to show you the kind of legacy you are leaving. Pray that God would cause you to delight in Him and His word daily.
Rob Pochek
October 15 Curses and Blessings
…Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. Nehemiah 13:2b ESV
Today’s Readings: Nehemiah 13
Malachi 1, 2 Acts 4
What is your reaction when something begins to go bad? A diagnosis comes back that you were dreading. A spouse becomes increasingly difficult to live with. A child seems to forsake your best efforts at raising them to honor the Lord. The raise you were counting on goes to someone else. Yet, even in the midst of seemingly bad situations, perhaps God is up to something bigger than we can imagine. The truth is, for all of our technological advances and intellectual achievements, we still tend to be quite short-sighted creatures.
Nehemiah 13:2 recalls a time in Israel’s existence when a foreign king attempted to curse Israel by securing the services of a prophet-for-hire named Balaam. Yet, the attempt to curse Israel backfired. God placed words of blessing in Balaam’s mouth. These divine blessings were based solely on God’s love for his people.
No matter what circumstances face you today; no matter what words you hear that seem to sound like curses, the truth is that God loves his people. And our God delights to turn what seems like curses into blessings.
Prayer: Ask God to help you see His hand at work in whatever circumstances you are in. Ask God to glorify Himself in whatever you may be facing. Rob Pochek
October 16 Robbing God
Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me…in your tithes and contributions. Mal 3:8 ESV
Today’s Readings: Malachi 3, 4
Psalms 148 Acts 5
There is little that gets church folks as nervous as a pastor preaching on the topic of money and tithing. Pastors, however, did not invent the word nor the concept of tithing; God did. The word “tithe” literally means, a tenth.
Before the Law was ever given, human beings have given a “tithe” of their first-fruits to God: Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:3-5); Abraham (Gen. 14:20); and Jacob (Gen. 28:22). Three different tithes were eventually incorporated into the Law. These provided for the priests (Num. 18:21, 24), supported a sacred festival (De. 12:17-18; 14:23) and provided for widows and orphans (De. 14:28-29; 26:12-13).
But, isn’t tithing just for Old Testament believers? No. Jesus affirmed the value of the tithe when he encouraged people to practice justice and mercy without neglecting tithing (Mt. 23:23). Further, if the new covenant is superior to the old, does God expect more or less of His new covenant children? Does grace lead us to do more or less than the law in responding to God’s goodness?
In light of biblical teaching, the tithe remains a benchmark for Christians that establishes a minimum expectation for our giving.
Prayer: Ask God to help you see yourself as a steward of His resources. Ask God if you are using His money in a way that pleases Him.
Rob Pochek
October 17 From God?
Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10 ESV
Today’s Readings: Job 1, 2 Acts 6, 7
One of the most difficult tasks a pastor has to face is helping people cope with tragedy and heartache. How do we reconcile the evil and tragic events that befall us with the knowledge that God is all-powerful and all-loving?
In Job 1-2 we find a faithful worshipper of God who, through no apparent fault of his own, experiences an amazing amount of suffering. In a short time, Job’s children are killed, his possessions destroyed or stolen, and his health are ravaged. Imagine you are Job’s friend. What do you tell him? In our culture, the most popular thing to say at such times is “the Lord allowed it, but did not cause it.”
I think it is instructive for us to note that this was not Job’s response. Job fell back onto the free and sovereign hands of God; recognizing that everything that comes into our lives comes through those sovereign hands. Nothing will send the enemy fleeing, or the angels of God into praise, like a believer who unwaveringly trusts the Lord in the midst of trouble.
Prayer: Ask God to help you learn to trust Him when things are difficult. Ask God to see more of His sovereign hand in the events of life. Rob Pochek
October 18 Suffering and Evangelism
Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Acts 8:4 ESV
Today’s Readings: Job 3, 4 Acts 8, 9
According to a Voice of the Martyrs website, www.prisoneralert.com, over 70 million Christians have been martyred for their faith since 33 AD. This year alone, an estimated 160,000 believers will die at the hands of their oppressors and over 200 million will be persecuted, arrested, tortured, beaten or jailed. If all of that persecution could be stopped today, wouldn’t that be a great blessing? I don’t know, would it?
Consider that the countries where persecution is among the worst, the number of converts to Christianity is soaring. Consider that many pastors and Christian leaders in countries like China, Indonesia, and other hotbeds of persecution do not ask us to pray for an end to the persecution, but for faithfulness in the midst of persecution.
While I am not suggesting that the torture and execution of Christians is acceptable, I do think it instructive for North American Christians to consider that God has always used persecution to purify and authenticate his church. The passage under consideration today is but one example in the New Testament in which persecution scattered the church; and, with the church, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Prayer: As you pray today, ask God to bless and strengthen those who are in chains for their faith today. Consider what you are willing to endure if it meant the spread of the gospel and the purifying of the church.
Rob Pochek
October 19 Gentile Pentecost
And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. Acts 10:45 ESV
Today’s Readings: Job 5 Psalm 108
Acts 10, 11
It would seem that God delights in surprising us. In today’s reading, Peter is led by the Spirit to recognize that what God has called “clean” he ought not to call “unclean.” For Peter, this was quite a stretch, considering the numerous dietary and cleanliness laws under the Old Covenant. Peter was, apparently, quite adept at declaring things unclean. God then calls Peter to visit the home of Cornelius, a gentile; which is another way of saying, one who is unclean. But, Cornelius was different – he feared God.
Peter arrived and after some formalities, stood up and declared the message of Jesus. Near the end of the message Peter said, “To him all the prophets’ bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43 ESV). At that moment, the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard and believed the word. Peter’s entourage was stunned. Naturally they were. God’s kingdom is far bigger than they could have ever imagined! Who could have imagined that God is not a respecter of nationality, ethnicity, or race? God is concerned with a heart that has been transformed by Christ. And what God declares clean, we ought not to declare unclean.
Prayer: As you pray today, ask God to help you to have eyes to see the grandness of His kingdom. Ask God to open your heart to those you have called “unclean” that God has called “clean.” Rob Pochek
October 20 A Praying Church
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Acts 12:5 ESV
Today’s Readings: Job 6, 7, 8 Acts 12
Peter was in prison. The church was in prayer. What an amazing juxtaposition! No appointments with lawyers. No attempts to contact the “JCLJ” (Jerusalem Center for Law and Justice). No picketing outside the prison. No petitions to submit to Herod. They just prayed.
The juxtaposition of the church in prayer while Peter is in prison is even more profound when we consider that Herod had killed James, the brother of John and a member of Jesus’ “inner circle.” Peter’s life was in danger. Shouldn’t someone DO something? They did. The church was in prayer. Not just any prayer, mind you; earnest prayer.
A number of churches spent a lot of time talking about prayer, but not praying. Some talk about what should be prayed about, but do not pray. Some churches talk about who should be prayed for, but do not pray. How and when does your church pray? What are you praying for? Do you pray earnestly? Are you praying for the lost around you? Are you praying for matters of eternal life and eternal death?
Oh, that God would raise up churches who realize our greatest asset is not our pocketbook, or our political influence, or our creativity; but it is the wonderful privilege of pouring out our heart to the Heavenly Father in prayer. Prayer is not a calm conversation as much as it is an urgent call from the front lines. It is less a phone line and more a wartime walkie-talkie.
Prayer: Pray earnestly. Rob Pochek