Waist Deep 2018 - A Daily Dip in the Bible

Ephesians 3: 20, 21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory. (NIV) We praise God for his attributes and thank him for his actions.* When I worked in an office, I often told our IT guys, “If I can think of it, you should be able to do it.” The IT department didn’t always see it that way. Sometimes my wishes were beyond their power to grant. I can think of great things for God to do, too, but he can think of greater ones. We tend to think of these verses as describing someone who can grant all our wishes – like a genie in a lamp. While God does sometimes use his power to accommodate us, we mostly misuse this source of power. We are armed with the power to save the world and all we can think of is how we can use it to make our dreams come true. “To him be glory” may be a command - or it could be a statement of fact: God will be glorified - because of who he is ...

Galatians 6: 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (NIV) When we evaluate ourselves against the New Testament example, we find much of what we call “community life” in the church today is still far from what Scripture calls us to do.* Our mission as Christians is to seek and save the lost. We know that in order to do our job, we have to have contact with nonbelievers. We are criticized (and rightly so) if we just hunker down in our church buildings, taking refuge from the dangerous, cruel world, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the New Testament speaks more about how to live a Christian life and how to get along with our brothers and sisters than it does about evangelism. Orphans who dream of being adopted don’t fantasize about joining a family of squabblers and back-stabbers. Why would anyone be attracted to the Christian life if we don’t treat each other with love...

Ephesians 3: 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (NIV) To separate faith from confidence would be an attempt to take away heat and light from the sun.* In my previous job, I and my colleagues from around the state went to the State Capitol to lobby our representatives regarding proposed legislation. I was with my counterpart from another county when we ran into one of her legislators in the hallway for a brief chat. I expected similar encounters with my representatives - except for one. I had been friends with him and his wife more than 20 years; and his aide was my former next-door neighbor. As it turned out, my friend was in a meeting when we got to his office, but his aide (my former neighbor) volunteered to take us to his boss in spite of my insistence not to bother him. He escorted us to a door that opened onto the dais of the meeting room and revealed my friend sitting there. When he spotted me, he didn’t just ...

Galatians 6: 1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. (NIV) Restoration, and not retribution or retaliation, must be the purpose of our dialogue with one another.* When trying to restore someone who is caught in sin, what sort of temptation should we watch out for? For one, we might be tempted to be judgmental. Or to oversimplify the solution - or to run! We might even be tempted to be presumptuous. What we must do when we are aware of a brother or sister’s sin, is to bathe them in prayer before taking it upon ourselves to address the issue with them. When I felt that a certain friend needed some wise counsel from me, I started by telling her what she was doing wrong and what she should do about it, but I didn’t watch myself and I gave in to the temptation to “let her have it.” Thankfully, she accepted my apology and I learned a valuable lesson.  The word t...

Galatians 3: 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (NIV) Should not people of hope, whose bodies are temples of God, look a bit different from children of despair?* On the red carpet at the Academy Awards, celebrities are asked, “Who are you wearing?” Wearing a designer’s creation is an advertisement for him and if you don’t look good, he doesn’t look good! Paul says that when we are baptized into Christ, we begin to wear Christ. But if not accompanied by faith and repentance, baptism is just a bath, and the “clothes” you wear around are cheap knock-offs, not designer originals. Such an analogy may be useful for illustration purposes, but it stops short of a perfect word picture. In John 14: 20, Jesus tells us that he is in the Father, we are in Jesus, and Jesus is in us. That sounds a little more complex than merely donning the appropriate attire. But the unity Christ describes between him and the father, and betwe...

Galatians 1: 24 And they praised God because of me. (NIV) The truth of God must always usher in the praise of God.* In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul presents his testimony and his credentials to the Galatian church. He is establishing his authority to confront them about things that were going on there (see verses 6 and 7). He refers to the churches in Judea who didn’t even know him but who, based on what they had heard, praised God because of what he had done through Paul. Paul is not bragging about himself but about how God had changed him from the man who had gone from persecuting Christians to the man who was preaching to them now. The churches to which Paul referred glorified God - they didn’t “worship” Paul. It is hard for us to separate the message from the messenger, presenting a double opportunity for Satan. First, as receivers of the message, we like to put our preachers and leaders on a pedestal – which is the equivalent of idol worship. And se...

II Corinthians 12: 9, 10 He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV) Personal weakness provides a great opportunity for God’s strength to come through.* Often, because we aren’t getting what we asked for, we think God is not answering our prayers. The fact is, God always answers the prayers of his children, but sometimes the answer is “no.” Just look at Paul. If anyone deserves to get what he wants from God, it is the Apostle Paul, God’s faithful, obedient, and self-sacrificing servant.  And what did he ask for that was so bad? He didn’t ask for riches, or vengeance on his enemies, or for God to interfere in the space/time continuum. He asked for the removal of a “thorn in my flesh.” We never learn the exact nature of his thorn. Most people assume it involved physical suffering. I tend to think it mi...

II Corinthians 10: 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. (NIV) The value of a commendation lies in who makes it.* The Apostle Paul, like any public figure, was the object of criticism. He probably tended to overlook most personal slights but in this passage of his letter to the Corinthians, he is compelled to defend his ministry. He could not overlook challenges to his authority to speak for the Lord.  In this chapter, Paul makes some interesting points, a few of which are:  · he is not ashamed that he is not ashamed of his calling from the Lord (verse 8);  · he does not classify or compare himself with others (verse 12);  · comparing yourself with yourself is not wise (verse 12).  Paul’s confidence in his authority to speak for the Lord is the result of his walk with the Lord. His boasting was not hollow because he knew the word and he knew t...

II Corinthians 9: 10, 11 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (NIV) If we receive wealth in return for our giving, it is not so that we can live the high life but so that we can give more.* This passage is an essay on supply and demand – in God’s economy. First, God supplies seed for the sower to plant, and bread to feed him while he waits for the harvest. In the course of the harvest process, he actually increases the supply of seed which yields an increase in the harvest of righteousness - our reward for benevolence.* Thus we are made rich – in every way - so that we in turn can be generous. Our generosity results in thanksgiving to God which is his required repayment for the seed he supplied in...

II Corinthians 9: 8 God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (NIV) Few persons are ever reduced to poverty by liberality . . . But . . . there are multitudes who are made poor by the lack of liberality.* In the earlier verses of this chapter, Paul bragged on the Corinthians for their eagerness to help and how their enthusiasm had stirred others to action. Being the cheerleader that he was, Paul hoped to urge the Corinthians to keep their momentum going. Keep up the good work, he might have said. Don’t be afraid that you will become impoverished because of your generosity to others. “Where the generous spirit is,” he might have maintained, “God will provide the means of expressing it.”* Is Paul promising that our generosity will make us wealthy? Doesn’t it sound like we should expect that the more we give, the more we get? Look again. He says that in all things, ...