Here are some additional devotions that have been fixed up and originated from the Ranger Essentials class that was held last month in Gate City, VA. Ranger Essentials is a one-day fun, interactive-style training event that teaches leaders how to connect with today’s boys, along with recognizing ministry needs and outreach opportunities. It includes training on how to give life-changing devotions and how to mentor boys and young men into spiritual leaders. To learn more about the training opportunities offered, visit our Training Opportunities page. If you’re interested in scheduling a training event near your area, please submit a request.
[Download Devotions in Microsoft Word format]
“Detergent”
During a recent Commander’s training, the trainees were given pictures from which to develop a devotion. I was given a bottle of detergent.
So what’s so special about detergent? Well, we use detergent for cleansing. We use these cleaners to wash our body, clothes, dishes, our home, bed sheets and even the dog. If we don’t wash our body, we’ll find that our friends begin to maintain an ever increasing distance. If we don’t wash our dishes, we risk food poisoning. If we don’t clean our home, no one wants to come over. And the dog. Especially the dog! We love our dogs! They’re part of the family! But oh, if we don’t give that dog a bath, no one wants to go near the dog. No one wants to pet the dog. If your dog sleeps on the bed as mine does, the stench can keep you awake. It’s not that we stopped loving the dog, but the smell separates the normal relationship.
While 1 John 1:7 tells us that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (justification), we also need a daily cleansing of our mind (sanctification). We spend most of our waking hours in a world that reeks of sin and if we don’t do some daily personal cleansing, we begin to stink like that dog that hasn’t had a bath in weeks. God hasn’t stopped loving us but like the smelly dog, the stink begins to separate us from our normal relationship.
That’s where Romans 12:2 comes in. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
The daily renewing of our minds. Reading. Praying. Being consistent. Habitual.
I’m a morning person and some circumstances in my life have made it a lot more difficult to get that bible time in in the morning. But I still need that daily cleansing and for now, I do that at night before bed. I need that renewing of my mind that only comes by daily spending time with Him.
Nothing is more important than that daily renewing of my mind so that the stench of the world doesn’t come between me and my Father.
“Walking in Truth”
During my regular reading, 3 John 4 struck me like it hadn’t before.
“I have no greater joy that to hear that my children walk in truth.”
While John here is referring to his spiritual children, it rings true with my natural children. I have five – three daughters and two sons. Three out of the house and two still at home.
In whatever they have chosen to do with their lives, I have no greater joy than to hear that they walk in truth.
While first and foremost, that applies to them walking in the truth of Scripture, it also extends to how they walk out their daily lives. Truth in church, in jobs, in school, in relationships, in diet, in exercise. In all that they put their hands to do.
Perfection would obviously be a ridiculous standard or expectation, but 3 John 4 gives me a way to pray for them as they go about their daily lives.
To Whom Shall We Go?
In John 6:53, Jesus says, “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”
In verse 60, we find the reaction from His followers: “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”
And in verse 66, we see their response: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
They walked no more with Him because they didn’t understand what He was saying. This was meant to be the spiritual partaking of His flesh and His blood and it is the basis for the Lord’s Supper. They didn’t make the connection between the giving of His life and the new life that would be offered them.
What if, in your life, the difficulties go well beyond “hard sayings” and you are experiencing “hard circumstances”? You don’t understand. You don’t see His purpose. You can’t reconcile what you know to be His good, acceptable and perfect will with the reality of the circumstances you now face. What you know to be correct and right has now been removed and the only thing left is trust. A trust in Him – the One that originally saved you and made you new.
Jesus asked of the twelve just as He asks of you, “Will ye also go away?”
May your response be as quick and heartfelt as Peter’s: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” I don’t think Peter understood it all at that point either. The only thing he knew to do was to trust.
Will we get explanations to all of these difficult circumstances when we step into eternity? Maybe the only answer we will ever get will be, “I AM”. I don’t think much will matter after that.