Seeing Past Paradise

By Peter Lundell –

My wife earned an all-expenses-paid trip to a gargantuan, opulent resort for a working vacation, and I got to go along. I was awestruck at the gardens, aquariums, water-park, ocean, and at the grandiosity of the architecture—the billions of dollars that must have gone into making this heaven on earth. I thanked God I didn’t have to pay.

Being so enthralled with the immensity of the place, I found myself not praying or reading my Bible as much as I normally do. Oh, my.

So I asked myself where God fit into this picture of extravagance. Since God is everywhere all the time, isn’t it up to us to determine where He fits into our lives—or more accurately, where we fit into His universe? As I surveyed this Garden of Eden, this palace of kings, I started looking beyond it. And I saw two things.

First, though it would take four days to see everything in this resort, it’s still just a dot on the planet. It would take many lifetimes to see even a fraction of everything on God’s earth—and it’s still a tiny ball in a vast cosmos.

Second, if humans could build such impressive places, what must heaven be like? Being at this resort gave me a new anticipation for how God’s eternal resort must be infinitely beyond this earthly one. Absolutely beyond imagination.

From that point I continuously found myself praying and reaching for my Bible. The change was a matter of getting a new perspective. Whether your life feels good or bad right now, here’s a promise from 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has see, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

PRAYER: Father, keep my eyes always open to see beyond the amazing man-made wonders of this world to the infinitely greater wonders You have in store for those who believe.

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things,    and so they came into being?’ declares the LORD. ‘This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word’” (Isaiah 66:1–2 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters.

Voicemail in Heaven

By Peter Lundell –

What if God ran heaven like a business and installed voicemail? It might sound something like this:

Thank you for calling heaven. Please select one of the following options:
Press 1 for thanksgiving.
Press 2 for complaints.
Press 3 for requests.
Press 4 for all other inquiries.
[Press any number]

I’m sorry; all of our angels are busy helping other saints right now. However, your prayer is important to us, and we will answer it in the order in which it was received. Please hold for the next available angel.

If you would like to speak to the Father, press 1. For the Son, press 2. For the Spirit, press 3. If you would like to hear a Psalm while you are holding, press 4. To find a loved one residing in heaven, press 5, then enter his or her Social Security number followed by the pound sign. If you get a negative response, please hang up and try area code 666.

To make a reservation for heaven, please enter J-O-H-N-3-1-6. For answers to nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age of the earth, life on other planets, and where Noah’s Ark is, please wait until you arrive.

If you are unable to reach one of our angels, please hang up and try again tomorrow.

This office will be closed for the weekend to observe the Sabbath. Please pray again on Monday after 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. If you need emergency assistance, please contact your local pastor.

Can you imagine this? No one would pray. Thank God—yes, I mean thank Him—that He gives us direct access. All the time. Remember that God hears genuine prayer, even when He’s quiet.

PRAYER: Father, thank You, thank You, that I have direct access to You. I’ve so often taken it for granted, but it is a supreme privilege to connect with You directly when I pray.

“I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live” (Psalm 116:1–2 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters.

How to Become a Car

By Peter Lundell –

It’s been said that sitting in a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. I decided to test the theory myself. Still human.

Since the time of Jesus, people have been confusing the commitment and lifestyle of following Jesus with the religion of Christianity. We easily forget that Jesus never came to start a new religion. He already had one. We call it Judaism. Jesus came to connect us to God.

People have a habit of adding things like rituals, institutions and allegiances—any of which can either help or hinder. Besides things we do in worship services, or how we spend our time, we can also confuse our spiritual identity with our national or cultural identity.

Christianity as a religion too often replaces the intimate relationship Jesus intended for us to have with God. What a cheap substitute! We too easily settle for going through motions rather than engage the harder prospect of life transformation. No wonder people often leave church.

This tendency has a lot to do with why evangelicals often have a bad reputation in America. And why so many of them do things to deserve that reputation. When we lose sight of what Jesus cared and didn’t care about, we say and do all kinds of dumb things.

I’m not saying don’t go to church. People who bail out on church sever themselves from the main social/spiritual fabric God established to keep us spiritual healthy and interactive. The church is essential. The issue is what the church does about what Jesus said and did.

Where do you fit in all this?

PRAYER: “Lord Jesus, beyond any church routines and any of my comfort zones, I hunger for You. Change me and keep changing me. May I be a blessing in my church so that my church will better help people connect with You.”

“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:9 NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of the award-winning book Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, Lundell is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters.

Sand to Sea

By Peter Lundell –

Imagine your whole life washing away in the ocean. I did when my daughter and I built a sandcastle on our vacation.

I stood by the water, facing land, and the castle looked great. People even came by to take photos, as if they’d built it themselves. Then I stepped to the other side of our sand monument and faced the sea.

Against the vast expanse of waves, the castle looked puny, miniscule, like nothing. And I knew it would wash away.

We built another castle after some little kids had fun kicking down the first one. Their parents apparently thought it was fun too. The second one still stood when we left to go home. But I knew that if it survived a kid’s foot, it would not survive the next storm or big wave.

Like the first castle, my life could end suddenly. Or I might slowly wash away in old age. Either way, the impressive things I’ve done with my life are like sand at the edge of the ocean, whose waves will eventually wash away every trace.

So what do I do about it? Panic? That’s wasted energy. Cynical disillusionment? That only makes things worse. Build bigger castles? The waves are infinitely bigger. I’ll never get out of this world alive, and I can’t take anything with me. Instead I’ll focus on what is not temporary and physical, what cannot wash away. And what brings more joy and purpose than anything else.

Jesus’ teaching, and his great commandment of Matthew 22:37–40, all come down to two things: loving God and loving people. To follow Him, my life becomes an act of worship to God and of blessing to other people. Worship is not only what I do in a Sunday morning sanctuary; I worship God daily, hourly if I have the focus to remember. I worship God with a right heart and mind attuned to Him, with a life lived as He taught me to live it. That honors him and finds intimacy with Him, whether in daily details or life ambitions.

Whatever castle I build, I’ve come to accept, even anticipate, an eternity that washes up like those ocean waves. How about you?

PRAYER: Lord, I offer up my life as an act of worship. May my thoughts, my goals, my attitudes, and my feelings be in harmony with Your Spirit. May my words and actions honor You and be a blessing to others.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love our neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’” (Matthew 22:37–40, NIV).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, he is a pastor, Bible college teacher and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories and book chapters.

Dead Jesuses

By Peter Lundell –

I visited two churches in downtown Los Angeles. And they both had dead Jesuses.

One was the first church ever erected here, when L.A. was just a pueblo built by settlers from Mexico. At the back of the sanctuary lay a statue of Jesus dead in the tomb. He was white as a ghost, with plastic rays spiking out from his head, safe under a Plexiglas cover. People stood and worshipped him. I was not inspired.

The other church was a beautiful Italian Renaissance structure with an imposing Greek colonnade smacked on the front. Trees obscured the statues above the columns. Everything on the edifice was written in Latin, and the only English was a small historical plaque the city had stuck on it. People passed by without a glance. The building and grounds were well maintained, but the doors were locked and lacked any kind of handle. I peeked through the crack between the doors to see white marble floors, walls and altar—empty. Cold and bare, uninviting and irrelevant.

One church has an actual dead Jesus with worshippers who pay their respects as they would at a funeral. The other has no Jesus or anyone at all—a dead and gone congregation along with whatever Jesus they once worshipped. By the looks of the church edifice, they considered Jesus rich and respectable—like themselves.

If you worship Jesus, what kind of Jesus do you worship?

Is He respectable? He who was a rabble-rousing misfit.

Is He meek and mild? He who took on demons and a temple full of merchants.

Is He sophisticated? He who was homeless.

Is He absent most of the time? He who left the throne of heaven to walk in our midst.

Or is He beyond categorization?

And alive. Alive like a fire burning.

PRAYER: Jesus, take me, my whole life. I am Yours and You are mine. Keep me from deadness in how I see You and worship You. Burn Your Holy Spirit’s fire in me. I will in turn share it with others who need a living Jesus.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’ (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified)” (John 7:38–39, NET).

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, he is a pastor, Bible college teacher and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories and book chapters.

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