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Monday
Read 1 Kings 12:21-24; Colossians 3:12-14
Rehoboam, son of King Solomon, became king of Israel after Solomon’s death. He was an evil king, leading the people to worship idols and not following the LORD’s ways. Therefore, the LORD allowed Jeroboam, formerly one of King Solomon’s officials, to lead ten of the twelve tribes of Israel (the northern tribes) to rebel against the king’s rule.
Rehoboam mustered a large army to squash the rebellion. God’s prophet, Shemaiah, was sent to Rehoboam saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not go up to fight against your brothers … Go home every one of you, for this is my doing.’ So, they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered” (1 Kings 12:24).
Brothers were planning to fight against brothers; but the LORD stopped them. This is the theme for this week’s devotions. Christians are not to attack each other. However, not to attack one another is incomplete in itself. Much more is necessary.
Colossians 3:12-14 is a good summary of the Christian’s response to attacks. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
“If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). Complete healing requires unconditional forgiveness for past offenses. Broken relationships need to be reconciled. There needs to be a growing love between formerly offended ones. And finally, one needs to be able to work together in unity with the other party. When all these steps take place, then complete restoration occurs. We don’t attack; we restore.
Questions
Do you have any broken relationships? What are the first steps you could take in attempting to restore these fractured relationships? What is the final goal for your attempts? Are you willing to take the initiative and take that first step? What might be stopping you? How can you overcome that barrier? The Lord will empower you to start the process. Trust Him and do it.
Prayer
Elementary and Middle School Camp
Pray for the camp leaders as they prepare to host thousands of children this summer. Help them to have the wisdom and love they need to spread the Good News and keep children safe.
Tuesday
Read Acts 4:32-35; Ephesians 4:7-16
Instead of attacking each other, Christians are called to work together in unity. Then God will bless their labors. God has given spiritual gifts to each of us so that we can work together “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13). When there is unity among believers, God is able to work in powerful ways through them. In Acts 4:32-35, when “the believers were one in heart and mind,” they had great power to preach the gospel.
When Christians exercise their spiritual gifts in a spirt of unity, God’s power is released. This was seen recently here at Glenkirk in the Chinese Bible class which was started a few months ago. One person invited a non-Christian family to church. Another person saw a need to start a Bible class for them. A third person was willing to lead the class. Pastor Kate enthusiastically supported the idea by arranging for a room for them to meet and for the church office to purchase Chinese-English New Testaments for the class members. During the class, three members of the class shared the Gospel with the non-believers attending. The results: four people made decisions to receive Christ and were recently baptized here at Glenkirk.
Six individuals were directly involved in seeing these four people become Christians. It was a team effort. If we were to count those many workers at Glenkirk who were indirectly involved in this team effort, there would be a great number. The musicians in the worship service, the choir, the ushers, the refreshment servers in the patio, the session, the church staff, the custodial staff, and many other volunteers who labor at Glenkirk, all were indirectly involved in bringing these four people to faith and baptism. We thank the Lord for working among us and leading us to work together in unity as a team.
Questions
How can we release more of God’s power by working together as a team?
Prayer
Elementary and Middle School Camp
Pray for the parents and staff accompanying our kids to camp.
Wednesday
Read Romans 15:1-6
Paul prayed that God would give the Christians a spirit of unity among themselves “so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify God” (Romans 15:6). Note that their unity enabled them to glorify God. Unity results in God being glorified.
The Billy Graham crusades are an example of unity. Billy Graham, as a young unknown evangelist, conducted an evangelistic crusade in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1949. After the crusade was over, their ministry team evaluated the meetings “as the greatest flop they ever experienced.” During the meetings, ministers of the town “bickered and refused to share the platform because of doctrinal differences. Protestors, including a radio preacher, held up placards admonishing Billy for cooperating with other churches.” (Greg Laurie) From that painful experience, Billy and his team insisted that in future crusades there be broad local church support to include as many churches and denominations as possible.
The next crusade was scheduled for Los Angeles in 1949. The local group sponsoring the crusade was a group of local businessmen from various churches in the area. Billy insisted that this committee had to put the public leadership and the platform duties of the campaign entirely in the hands of the local clergy and that there needed to be visible cooperation and unity among city churches. (Laurie) The Los Angeles Crusade of 1949 was organized by Christ for Greater Los Angeles. (Wikepedia)
God blessed many people in a mighty way through the crusade meetings. The crusade, originally scheduled for three weeks, was extended to eight weeks because of the overflowing crowds. The tent where the meetings were held had to be enlarged. Thousands of people were saved, including many famous people: Stuwart Hamblen, a famous cowboy radio personality; Jim Vaus, a wiretapper working for the local mafia; Louie Zamperini, an Olympic champion and famous war hero. (Laurie)
The local and national media gave the crusade widespread coverage. The Los Angeles crusade vaulted Graham, the previously unknown small-town evangelist, into an international figure.
One of the reasons the Lord richly blessed the crusade was because of the unity among the local churches which resulted in God being glorified. Graham’s personal humility, surrendered godliness, collaboration with the greater Church and availability to be used of God were a powerful combination used by the Lord for His kingdom purposes. The rest is history, as Graham’s legacy continues.
Questions
What can you do to promote Christian unity?
Prayer
Elementary and Middle School Camp
Pray for the hearts of our children and students as camp quickly approaches. We pray that they will be able to unplug and connect with their peers, nature, and their Creator.
Thursday
Read Acts 4:23-35
In Acts 4:23-35, after the disciples had been commanded by the Jewish officials to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, the disciples went back to meet with the believers and prayed together. “After they prayed, … they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly. All believers were one in heart and mind” (vv. 31-32). Prayer among the believers produced unity and power to preach boldly. Note the courage of these disciples, ten of whom fled the scene during Jesus’ false trial and subsequent crucifixion. Their experience of the risen Christ and enablement by the Holy Spirit fueled their bold witness. God equips those whom He calls!
Let us look at an example of Christians praying together resulting in unity and power. In the city of Rosario, Argentina, the churches did not work together in cooperative projects. Each church did their own thing, fragmenting and diffusing efforts. The churches were somewhat stagnant in their various ministries. They were simply maintaining and existing, treading water. Their visions for evangelism, church growth, and church planting were largely absent. Nothing exciting was happening.
In the early 1990s, the Holy Spirit moved some of the pastors to begin praying together regularly. Gradually, they were able to recruit other pastors to join them. In time this pastors’ prayer meeting involved many pastors from the city. In their prayer times, the Lord brought unity among them and led them to work together to host a city-wide evangelistic crusade.
The Lord richly blessed the people through the crusade. Large crowds made decisions to receive Christ. The crusade dates had to be extended because so many people were coming to faith in Christ. These new believers began to flood into the local churches, straining the seating capacity of the churches. The Lord blessed the churches with a deluge of new believers. (Ed Silvoso)
The churches had been struggling on their own. When the pastors began to pray together, the Holy Spirit brought unity among them, and His power was released to do a great work in their city.
Questions
What might happen if you were to meet regularly together with your Christian friends for prayer? If there was strong unity within your group, what might the Holy Spirit do among you? If only we could see what might happen! What could we do as individuals to bring this about?
Prayer
Elementary and Middle School Camp
Pray for the interpersonal lives of our students while at camp and in the future.
Friday
Read Philippians 2:1-11
The theme for this week’s devotions is that Christians are not to attack each other. However, the Scriptures have shown us that not attacking one another is incomplete in itself. Much more is necessary. We don’t attack; we restore.
Complete healing requires forgiveness for past offenses. Broken relationships need to be reconciled. There needs to be a growing love between formerly offended ones. And finally, one needs to be able to work together in unity with the other party.
For all the above to take place, humility is required. We are to be “likeminded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. … in humility value others above yourselves” (vv. 2-3) We are to look at the example of Christ, who being God, humbled Himself to take on a human body, and became obedient to death on a cross. (vv. 6-8). To avoid attacking others, we must maintain a spirit of humility in our relationships.
Humility is required to restore broken relationships. A pastor that I knew fell into scandalous sin and had to resign from his pastorate. He had to humble himself, confess his sin, and be willing to submit to meetings with a group of pastors to confirm his sincerity. These pastors met regularly with him with the goal of restoring him. They had to have a spirit of humility themselves, knowing that we all are sinners and that we can easily fall. After over a year of meetings, with confession of sin, counseling, and prayer, the group felt that the fallen pastor was ready to return to ministry. Instead of condemning and ostracizing him, they worked to restore him. A spirit of humility was required for all parties involved.
Humility goes against our selfish, prideful nature. But one of the fruits of the Spirit is humility. The Holy Spirit can help us humble ourselves. This in turn will empower us to work at restoring broken relationships, forgiving others, loving those who offend us, and then working together in unity to do the Lord’s work. Ultimately, God will be glorified. Thus, Jesus’ teaching during His well-known sermon on the mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
Questions
Does your pride ever get in the way? How can you cooperate with the Holy Spirit to develop the fruit of humility within you? Are you living such that you can look forward to “inheriting the earth” upon Jesus’ return?
Prayer
Elementary and Middle School Camp
Pray for the mental, relational, and physical health of our students at camp and beyond.
Sources
- Greg Laurie, Billy Graham: The Man I Knew (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2021).
- Historical facts in Wednesday’s devo can also be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Crusade_(1949), https://billygraham.org/story/lives-changed-at-billy-grahams-los-angeles-crusade/ and https://romans1015.com/tag/stuart-hamblen/.
- Ed Silvoso, That None Should Perish; How to Reach Entire Cities for Christ Through Prayer Evangelism (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1995).
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