Prepare for Easter

Saturday, March 7, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” Luke 5:18-20

Wallace and I were in China, teaching at a university way in the hinterlands of Sichuan. We had had the joy of leading a young Chinese student to Christ, and she was an amazing student of the Scripture. Every week, she challenged us with her questions about her reading.

One day she came with tears. Her mother, an unbeliever, had just been diagnosed with a serious cancer and was to have surgery in Beijing. With childlike faith, she explained that if Jesus once healed, he could still do that. How should she pray for her unbelieving mother?

Prayerfully we sought the answer, and God brought us to this passage. The men who brought the invalid were believers. There is no indication that the invalid was a believer. So we took this passage to God, asking that as we brought her mother to lay her at the feet of Jesus he would heal her of this cancer.

Several days later, the student called to say that the surgeons said the tumor proved to not be malignant. “The diagnosis must have been in error,” they said.

I report. You decide.

How often do we bring our unbelieving friends and lay them at the feet of Jesus for healing – spiritually or physically? Often, I hope.

Father, give us faith such as this Chinese student had. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Friday, March 6, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Be still and know that I am God. . . .  Psalm 46:10 NIV

I am such a do-er! I have difficulty watching TV if my hands are not doing something constructive. Sitting in quiet contemplation is not easy. I realized just how difficult when I took the Companions in Christ class with Marilyn Watson. It was hard to be still!

As I have been examining the text for things to teach us about what kind of business Jesus was in during his brief three years of public ministry, I have been surprised. Jesus spent much time going among the people, healing the sick, delivering the oppressed, revealing by his words and actions what God is like. However, he spent at least equal time in quiet conversation with the twelve or on a mountain alone with God, or in the garden in prayer.

Jesus spent time with those he was teaching and with God. He made time for teaching, healing, and ministering. We do it the other way around. We try to make time for God, and spend time doing everything else. A close look at Jesus’ three years of ministry reveals clearly that we have our priorities wrong.

There’s much to do in the church, and we work hard at being all we can for each other and the community. But I wonder if Jesus would not like for us to put the quiet time with him first and the work for him afterward. I’m sure he is prodding me to make intimate fellowship with him a big part of my being about the Father’s business. Makes sense to me because I know that it is in the quiet times that I hear him best.

Father, help us make prayer a top priority. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida

Spring 2010

by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Thursday, March 5, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Luke 4:13 NIV

Is Satan real? Jesus would say he is. He met him face to face more than once. Luke 4 tells about the wilderness.

He attacked everything about Jesus – his relationship with the Father, his humanity, and his ambition. Jesus had been contemplating the wonder of his baptism and talking to God about the ministry that was just beginning. Having fasted for 40 days, he should have been physically weak, but he was strong. Satan went after Jesus with all he had, but Jesus triumphed!

Not only is he real and attacking, but he is persistent. In 2000, Pastor Richard Evans preached a sermon in our church in which he said something I don’t ever want to forget: “The devil never gives up until we give in or until we die.” I wrote Pastor Evans’ words in my Bible that day, and I read them occasionally to remind myself of how persistent my chief adversary is.

We don’t need to be overwhelmed by him because Jesus Christ has completely defeated him. He’s still wandering around but not for long. We need not dwell on his presence, but we should acknowledge that he hates God who is out of his reach. If he can’t get to the Father, he can harass the children.

He knows that the business of the Father is important, and he wants it to fail. If he can convince us he is not real, it’s easier to cause little skirmishes to prevent the Father’s business from being done. In the wilderness, Jesus taught a lesson we need to learn.

Father, Thank you for delivering us from the Evil One. Help us not to allow him any place in our lives. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord our God and serve him only.’” Luke 4:8 NIV

In preparation for one of the movies for our children on Saturday morning, I recently watched, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” based on the book by C. S. Lewis. It’s been so long since I read the book that I can’t judge how close the movie is to Lewis’ classic. I can tell you, however, that the movie’s depiction of evil was as good as I have seen.

At first the evil witch might be appealing to a child, but before long her evil self begins to appear. And the characters are vile who shout and beg for the lion, Aslan, to be slain. After the film, the children sat on the floor in the media room, and we talked. They recognized the evil and the subtle way the witch tried to trap. Most importantly they identified Aslan as the Christ figure who died to save the people of Narnia.

Satan can be subtle. He wants us to worship anything but God! He makes the vilest things attractive. He wraps himself in something beautiful that we think we cannot live without and fools us into worshiping it. We don’t recognize the trap as we long for “beautiful things,” sometimes until it is too late.

Satan promised Jesus the world if Jesus would just worship him. Thank God Jesus would not be trapped! Jesus had business to do, and he’d not allow Satan to be part of it!

Are we as quick to recognize him, to realize that a little sin leads to more, things that can destroy our kingdom work, hinder us from being about the Father’s business?

Father, Keep us from the evil one! You are our God, and we want to worship you and you alone. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” Luke 4:4 NIV

Jerry and Janet Tanner tell us that there are hungry people all over Citrus County. They know these people by name and face, for they go into the woods and take them food and have coffee with them by the fire.

Through the Tanners, our church has had its eyes opened to need close at hand, and we have given from our plenty. We hope that the needy are encouraged by the food and that they understand that we give it out of hearts changed by the Lord God himself.

However, what about the “other” food – the other kind of bread Jesus is talking about. The New Testament in Basic English translates this verse, “Bread is not man’s only need.” Jesus’ bread doesn’t come from an oven. First we must ask ourselves if we have been so fed by the “bread of life” that we are spiritually healthy. Are we careful to see that we have a balanced spiritual diet daily? Romans 15:4 says, “Everything that has been written was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.”

We gave food to the needy out of our plenty. There’s also a spiritually hungry world out there. Do we have that kind of spiritual plenty that we can also give to others – the needy around us, even our friends and neighbors? Can we fill them with hope from God’s Word? Do we know it well enough to share it with those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Father, Create in us such a hunger for your Word that we can be filled and out of our plenty we’ll have much to give others. Feed us that we may be about your business of feeding others. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Monday, March 2, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

And the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God. . . .” Luke 4:3 NKJV

Do you think Satan did not know who Jesus was? “If” didn’t mean that he didn’t know. “If” was a challenge. “If you are who you say you are, prove it! Do some miracle – even a small one like turning a stone into bread. After all, you are hungry, and you deserve to eat. Even better, make God do some miracle like save you when you throw yourself off of a building.”

I think Jesus is just incredible! (Of course!) He had been in the wilderness for 40 days without food and water, so we’d expect him to be weak! We forget something. He had been communing with his Father all that time, drawing strength from him. Remember later when he told his disciples, “I have food that you don’t know about.” Well, this was one of those times. His food was a spiritual sustenance that not only kept him from being weak at the end of the 40 days, but it made him strong enough to meet his formidable foe who never quit trying to defeat him.

We may not be challenged as he was, but we are challenged. Haven’t there been times when someone said, “IF you are a Christian, why aren’t you working at My Father’s Table?” “If you are a Christian, why aren’t you standing on the street corner telling people about the Lord?” “If you are a Christian. . . .”

Jesus knew who he was and what his business was! He did not waste his time arguing with Satan, the liar and father of liars. We must follow his lead. When we spend time with God, he’ll tell us who we are and what he wants us to do. Then we won’t be tempted to try to do the work he’s called someone else to do.

Father, Help us to hear you call us to our own work. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

Prepare for Easter

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Sundays are typically not counted in the 40 days of Lent.

Enjoy today.

Focus on the Lord.