Steve Timmons

This week, I’m sharing a devo from my buddy, Steve Timmons.  Enjoy!  -Dave

“Do you think you’re good enough to go to Heaven?”

This is a question people hear a lot when being witnessed to. However can it be possible to focus too much on where we’re going and not on who we’re going to see?

The Bible is all about being close and intimate with God. He is holy and sovereign and good. He is also relational, as it is even shown in the three separate persons whom He is composed of. They are all individuals, but all work and commune harmoniously together.

God desires a relationship with us. And it is not because God needs a relationship with us. He doesn’t need us at all, and really wouldn’t want us after we have sinned and screwed up so many times against Him. However for some strange reason, God chose to desire us. That is one of the reasons why He sent His Son to die for us.

Nahum 1:2 says, “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God.” This does not mean that God is an obsessive, abusive control freak. What this verse is saying is that God is jealous for our affection and will do absolutely anything to obtain it. This is almost like a man seeking the affection for another woman as his bride. He will do absolutely anything he can to win her affection: buy her dinner, get her flowers, buy a $3,000 engagement ring, etc. The same goes with God. His jealousy also went as far as sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to provide that way for us to freely seek Him. Jesus Christ died a brutal death and bore the wrath of God. He took that vengeance that God should rightly have against us. He took it and through Him we are set free from our sins.

Remember, there is more to Christ’s selfless sacrifice than just our sins being wiped away. We are now free to seek God no matter where we are. We could be in a church service lifting our hands, or we could be at home eating breakfast in a bathrobe with morning breath and bed-head hair. God meets us where we are. He hangs out with us; He encourages us; and He just plain shows affection to us, not because we deserve it, but because we don’t! Our God is good!

Have you ever felt the warm embrace of God? There was one time a few weeks ago when I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really distressed. I was worried about a lot of issues concerning money and what was going to happen to me in the next few months. I broke down confessing my sin to God in tears. I felt so insufficient because I knew this anxiety was wrong, but I couldn’t let it go. As I was weeping, I felt God’s warm embrace and His peace all around me. I felt warmth like no blanket or heating system has ever given me before. All my muscles relaxed and I felt peace. This was God’s peace. I believe He was holding me close and comforting me with His love.

So will Heaven be nice? Absolutely. But Heaven won’t be nice because of tricked out streets of gold, seeing old friends long gone and not having to deal with the burdens of this sinful world. Heaven will be nice because of Jesus Christ! I’ll be able to see Him face to face! I’ll be able to walk with Him, talk with Him, ask Him questions, and did I mention WORSHIP HIM?! I’ll be seeing that beautiful throne like what John describes in Revelation as Jesus sits upon it. Not only that but I can freely approach that throne without fear of rejection or punishment because Jesus Christ has washed me clean of my filthy sin.

Heaven is not just about comfort. It is about Jesus Christ. If you think Jesus Christ is not in Heaven, then you are not thinking about Heaven.

“Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
-Psalm 73:25-26

Dave White

Hey,  guys!  I sat at my desk for some time trying to come up with what I would share with you all this week.  After a while of staring at a blank screen, I decided to give it a break and come back to it later.  Shortly thereafter, I was encouraged by an email sent out by my friend Mike Masterson, who is serving as the president of 180 Christian Fellowship at Eastern Connecticut State University, my alma mater.  It seems that God doesn’t want me to share with you this week, but to let Mike encourage at least one of you readers.  So, with that, I’ll shut up.  The following is part of the email I received from Mike:

Hey all!

So this week the rain was crazy wasn’t it?? I did not mind the rain all that much until Thursday night, when we were driving to UConn. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed going to UConn, spending the time with all of you and Craig Smith who did an awesome job that night. The rain though, oh man, driving in that was not fun. It was dark; I could not see the yellow lines and the lights on the van didn’t show too much in front of me.

Even though those lights in front of me didn’t show much, it gave me comfort having them and they helped me get to my final destination. This reminded me a lot of our faith and relationship with God.

Psalm 27:1 says “The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my light; Of whom shall I be afraid?”

The verse tells us that the Lord is our light; if we follow Him we will have nothing to be afraid of.  On Thursday night, He was literally a light for me to get back to Eastern safe and sound.  There are many times in our life that we don’t have that literal light showing us the path to our home. We do have one constant light (the Lord) in our life that will always show us the path, giving us the strength and courage to go forth in any trial we come across.

If any of you all have a devotional you would like to share with me (Dave), I’d love to hear it.  Feel free to email me at prayer@f2fmi.org.   God bless you all!  I’m praying for you.  Pray for me, too.

Dave White

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is,’Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ – Mark 12:28-30

As I compose this week’s little devo, I am ill.  I bring this up because this particular illness is affecting my ability to think, breathe, and balance.  I am not my usual witty, oxygenated, and well-balanced self.  My heart, soul, mind, and strength are not as hearty, soulful, cognisent, and strong as they usually are.  What’s cool about God is that He’s ok with that.  Our God meets us where we are and ushers us into His Presence because of the work He has done through the cross – not by our work or morality, but by His grace.  Love God with all that you have.  Our God does not demand any more than we are able to give.  Jesus takes care of the rest.

No matter what your emotional condition, God will take you as you are.  Even if we are angry at the Sovereign God, He will take us as we are.  From the depths of despair, He will welcome us into His hope and love.

No matter what your spiritual condition, God will take you as you are.  Whether someone has served the Lord for decades or been in rebellion against Him, God calls all people to turn to Him.  To be welcomed by God, one does not need to have a perfectly clean moral record.  I’ll add here that my illness has weakened my ability to fight temptations today and that the Lord knows my weaknesses and that His grace covers it.  (The Holy Spirit’s strength is not weakened, and His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.)

No matter what your mental condition, God will take you as you are.  It does not matter whether you have an IQ of 0 or 160, God will take you as you are.  God welcomes forgetful people and those with photographic memories.  God grace covers people with autism, schizophrenia, ADD, OCD, PTSD, and every other acronym.

No matter how much strength you have in body or will, God will take you as you are.  One does not need to be able to climb a mountain, swim a river, run a mile, or hog-tie a bull in a rodeo.  You don’t need to be in perfect health or a certain height or a particular build in order for God to pour out His abundant grace on your insufficient strength.

These truths apply to both those who have and those who have not accepted Christ as their personal Savior.  For those who have accepted Christ, we walk with Him knowing that He will continue to meet us where we are. As we walk with Him, we do become more like Him in heart, soul, mind, and strength; and we should strive for holiness; but we also have full confidence that He accepts us in our current state because of Jesus’ finished work of redemption on the cross.

For those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord (Boss of your life) and Savior (Rescuer of your soul), God invites you to give Him your all, your everything.  Your sin weighs you down and separates you so much from a good and holy God, that you can never reach Him by your own efforts.  Even more than that, the only right response of the perfectly good God against your sin and rebellion is justice.  But God, who is so generous with His mercy, has actually taken upon Himself the penalty of our sin so that, through Jesus, our relationship to our loving Creator can be restored.  A restored friendship with God is the best thing that can happen to anybody!  God invites you to that.  Accept God’s gift of rescuing and restoring through Jesus Christ, and love God with everything you have!

Tonight (Saturday), I was reminded of the reality of what we are dealing with in regards to our youth.  Brothers and sisters, we must fight the battle for their souls and their lives.  We cannot give up.  We cannot ignore their struggle.  We must remind ourselves of the depth and breadth and importance of what they are going through every day in their schools, and we must not forget the terrible strength of the world’s enticing culture of self-worship and impermanent pleasures.The world has a powerful grip on the spiritual throats of these kids, but our victorious Christ has said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Our struggle may be great, but our God is so much greater than our task.  He is mighty in deed and powerful in effect.  “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Pray for us and all those who minister the GOOD NEWS of Jesus our Savior to those who are dying in their sins.  Pray for these kids, caught in the spell of the devil, world, and flesh.  Only Jesus can save them, and He is able!

^{Psalm 78:4-8}

⁴We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
⁶that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
⁷so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
⁸and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Dave White

Well, not really. Anyways…

I had a wonderful time early this month spending time with great friends out of state. I did a lot of driving, and, by the time I returned home, my car was filthy. So, Thursday evening after work, I took my car through the wash. I even splurged and got the $8 wash with the special foam and dry. I felt pretty good about myself as I drove home in my shiny car.

On Friday, I awoke to snowfall, and I drove to work through the snow. By the time I got to work… my car was filthy again. Far better than being grumpy about this, God used this to remind me of His forgiveness. Through the blood of Jesus, we are washed clean of our sins. Though we sin again and again, the Father welcomes us back into His arms and washes us clean through the regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Thesis #1 of Martin Luther’s 95 theses was this: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent”, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

It’s shameful how often I cover myself with filthy sin, but God’s love and grace is greater than my tendency toward depravity. More than I dislike the dirt on my car, God hates our sin. He is good and cannot stand evil. Nevertheless, far more than I enjoy my ‘95 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, God delights in, rejoices over, and adores His children!

My car gets dirty again and again, and I need to keep washing it. Our lives get mucked up again and again, and we need to continue repenting of our sins before God- turning from our wrong deeds, words, thoughts, and feelings and turning to Jesus, who washes us clean again and again by His Spirit.

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” – Titus 3:3-7

Dave White

 “[R]each all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”     -Colossians 2:2b-3

Last time, I wrote about how there are many mysteries about God that are far beyond us.  In this post, I want to remind you that not all of God is a mystery and encourage you to rejoice in what God has revealed about Himself to you and me.

See, when the Bible speaks of the “mystery,” it is rarely speaking of an undisclosed secret.  Rather, it speaks of a mystery revealed or a secret made known.  The Bible itself is a pulling back of the curtain, revealing the mystery of our eternal and divine Creator.  Through Scripture we discover the character of God, as well as His plan and purpose for our lives.  We do not have to remain groping about in darkness, but as Micah said, “When I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.”   So, pick up your Bible.  Love Scripture, for it acquaints us with our Maker, showing us who God is.

For example, Ephesians 1:7-10 declares that “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

As Moses was reminding a new generation who they were and who God is and what He had done, Moses paused to tell the Israelites this: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  So, don’t dwell on the things you don’t know about God.  Rejoice in what He has revealed!  Share it with your family!  And use what you know to please God!

“Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen!” – Romans 16:25-27 

Dave White

I am tired and weary, but God is not.  I often fail in my responsibilities, but God never fails.  I frequently am not a very good friend, but Jesus is our Friend who sticks even closer than a brother or sister.  When you are weary, know that God is strong.  When you fail, take heart, because the Lord will never fail you.  When you are faithless, know that Jesus is the Faithful and True.

Psalm 121
A Song of Ascents.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
² My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
⁸ The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

Grace and peace,

Dave White
f2fmi prayer coordinator

Where can I begin to declare the myriad excellencies of God Almighty?!  The LORD, holy and faithful, mighty to save, just and gracious, merciful and strong, kind beyond my understanding, King over all Creation, He is absolutely worth praising!  I am compelled to praise God at all times, even in difficulty, because He is worthy.  I don’t know whether you are in the pits or on the mountaintops or somewhere in between right now, but let me encourage you with some of what the Lord has been doing recently in my life.

As I write this, I am taking a break from doing some yard work on a clear, beautiful September day.  The smell of fresh mulch was just in my nostrils.  Just a little while ago, I was delighting in eating a delicious, New England autumn apple.  In a few weeks, our hills will be ablaze with the beauty of fall foliage.  Rejoice in our God, the Creator of all these pleasantries and marvels.  If you don’t enjoy the outdoors as much as I do, I encourage you: delight in another part of God’s creation.

Last night, I saw common youth group kids transformed into missionaries.  Our pre-Overtime rally was so encouraging.  We worshiped God with music led by Andy Needham. Kids committed to praying for 5 of their friends who need Jesus and inviting them to Overtime.  I’m so excited about what God is going to do in people’s hearts through this event!

Earlier this week, I burned my finger really badly, while I was boiling some corn on the cob.  We prayed for it that night, and it was completely healed the next day.  I am growing more and more confident that the job God has provided for me is, indeed, where He wants me to be right now.  Though there are many things I could be exceedingly concerned about right now, I cannot but rejoice in the God of my salvation and His works throughou the earth, because He is so worth praising!

Thank you so much for partnering with us in declaring the glories of God throughout the earth.

Dave White
f2fmi prayer coordinator

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”                                                                                      – 1 Peter 2:9

Grace is so foundational in the Christian life.  One definition declares that grace is God the Father in love doing good for ill-deserving sinners through God the Son by God the Spirit.  Grace encourages, enables, saves, sanctifies, provides, and empowers.  Grace, too, is persevering.

God does not give up on us.  He is the Author and Perfector/Finisher/Completer of our faith.  He finishes what He starts.  When we sin or mess up, no matter how small or large the mistake, God does not throw His hands in the air and turn his back on us.  No!  The Lord is faithful.  He will never abandon us –not because we are awesome, but because He is.

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” -Philippians 1:3-7

We’re all in this together.  All of us need God’s grace.  We need it just as much today as we did on the day we first said “yes” to Jesus.  God is just as willing to give us His grace today as He was then.  His grace perseveres.  Do not lose heart.  God has not given up on you.  He will never give up on you.

Thank you for sharing in God’s grace with f2fmi.  Grace and peace be yours in abundance!

Serving with you,

Dave White
f2fmi Prayer Coordinator

“The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18)

Call on the Lord! He is near you. What a privilege to serve God, who is close and not distant! We do not serve an uninterested god off on a far planet somewhere, who put things in motion and then stepped back. No! God, our Creator and Savior, is close to us and is intimately aware of all that concerns us. He involves Himself in our lives and in human history so that our chronicles and annals are truly HIS story.
The Lord is near. This should be a truth of immense comfort and perhaps a little terrifying. After all, our God is the One who will judge every person for every deed and every careless word spoken. But, if we have trusted Christ as our Savior and if we live as servants and not enemies of God, the truth of God’s closeness is one of great comfort.

“For You, O LORD, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You.” (Psalm 86:5)

God, our Father, has adopted us into His family through Jesus’ blood and has reconciled us to Himself. Praise God! He has also given us the assignment of joining with Him in His work to make His Name great throughout the earth, by drawing people to Himself. Thank you for joining with f2fmi as we seek to glorify God and share the Good News in our region. This week, call upon the Lord in confidence, knowing that He is near.