Author: Pastor Mike

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life  Day 44

“Sacred”

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

Keep sacred what is sacred or be scared by what is scary.  The home or the family is a God idea.  It reflects God’s compassion and care for His people.  God gave us the privilege of reproducing and the idea of home and family to grow and to raise children in a relationship with Him.  The  Home and family is a God idea and because it is a God idea it will be a blessing to all involved who keep is sacred to the Lord.  The same God who said “Be fruitful and multiply” also said, “fill the earth, subdue it, and rule…”  Everyone in the family is to learn to rule and reign in life and over life with God.  Never forget what family is about and never make it something that it is not supposed to be because everyone in the family will be blessed or cursed by the decisions we make.  In the family we are to be schooled and strengthen in the compassion, care, and competence of God.  The Bible says, “In the  fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge.  The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:26-27)  Provers 27:8 says, “Like a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home.”  The Home is God’s idea, honor it!

The Kitchen Table Devotional:  The Game of Life          Day 43

“Sacred”

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

Keep sacred things sacred and life will be special, if not life will become scary.  Marriage is a God idea for man’s insufficiency.  This life is about “relationships” and marriage is to be the most intimate of those relationships.  We were not made to live in isolation.  Isolation is used to punish and break a person.  God created marriage to mend man’s problem and mimic God’s person.  God is three in one and man is to become one with another.  Man and woman are to become each other’s compliment and company for a lifetime.  The two are to become one and live as one for a lifetime.  It’s a sacred relationship that becomes more and more special as we go through time but it’s a relationship that becomes more and more scary if we don’t keep it sacred.  The Bible says, Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)  Marriage is a relationship of fun, fulfilment, and faith for those who make is sacred.   It’s a relationship that mimics our relationship with God where two people rule and right in life, over life, through life together with God.  It’s special!

The Kitchen Table: The Game of Life Day 42

“Things that are Sacred”

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule…        Genesis 1:28

In this life there are special relationships, practices, and organizations that come from God.  They are God ideas that come from the imagination of God for all mankind, and they make life wonderful.  Life itself is one of those ideas.  Life is a God idea and to know how to live it, we need God’s instructions.   So, life is sacred, coming from God and for God.  Don’t let anyone or anything squander (live foolishly & lose frightfully) your life.  It’s God’s idea for us to rule and reign in life with Him.  But when life is something that we squander it becomes something that is stripped of what is special and sacred. 

God puts life in our hands and waits for us to put our hands in His and rule and reign with Him.  There is a purpose to life and God creates life with that purpose.  Every child, born and even unborn, holds the promise and purpose of God, regardless of color, race, or wealth.  There is something divine that God is doing in your life.  Regard this life as sacred, to be lived with God and for God, and something sacred and special will come from it.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:          The Game of Life  Day 41

“Institutions of Life”

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count.                      Psalms 40:5

There are all sorts of ideas about how to live this life.  You want to know whose ideas they were and why and where they came from.  It’s important because God has always been thinking about us and His ideas for our lives are wonderous and numerous.  The thing is that God’s ideas are institutions in life.  There are special relationships that were created to bless us and make life as wonderful as His thoughts are toward us.  Some of those God ideas, institutions, are life, marriage, family, church, and government.  God’s institutions require God’s instruction to work well for all involved.

On the very first page of the Bible, God says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28  This life is a God idea and we are to rule in it with Him, not run from it without Him.

The Kitchen Table Devotional:  The Game of Life  Day 40

“Prayer”

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from  evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]  ¹⁴ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Matthew 6:12-15

Ask for the greatest gift, forgiveness.  Forgiveness is the key to every other gift in life.  With forgiveness we can receive and without it we will refuse the things in life that make life work.  The forgiveness of God is so powerful that it will set a person free to set others free too.  We all have forever, what we need is forgiveness because it’s forgiveness that determines where we will spend forever.  Without forgiveness we all fall into some sort of violence in this world.  We find forgiveness at the head of the table, in the strongest hands with the biggest heart.  While you’re there at the head of the table ask for the greatest gift for yourself and others, the gift of forgiveness, it will set you free.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:  The Game of Life           Day 39

“Prayer”

Pray, then, in this way:  ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ¹⁰ ‘Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  ¹¹ ‘Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:9-11

Prayer is going to the head of the table, taking hold of the strongest hands, and leaning on the biggest heart which all belong to God our Father.  When asking for the needs and wants in life, go to the One who loves the most.  Lean on His heart for us.  The One who really loves us and came to show us His love for us.  Like writes, “How much more will you heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 6:13).  Jesus says, “Whatever we ask…” (John 14:13: 15:16)  God’s love for us is so great that He will meet the smallest needs.  Paul writes, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, ²¹  to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)  Go to the head of the table, grab the strongest hands and lean on the biggest heart.  God loves us but if we don’t learn to pray we won’t learn to play in His love.

The Kitchen Table Devotions:  The Game of Life  Day 38

“Prayer”

Pray, then, in this way:  ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.  ¹⁰ ‘Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.                 Matthew 6:9-10

Reach for the strongest hands!  If we don’t learn to pray, we will only learn to play at this life.  Without God we will reach for weak things, thoughts, and times.  God has so much more for those who not only believe in Him but believe Him.  However, when we are only playing at life, any hands will work.  Only those who are reaching for heaven need His hands to get there.   When God falls to the bottom of our “help” list we will find ourselves on the top of the “needs” list.   The things God wants to do in us, through us, and for us, will require His strength.  Reach for the strongest hands in life and those hands belong to God.  Prayer is about taking His hands to have His life in His world. 

The Kitchen Table Devotions:  The Game of Life           Day 37

“Prayer”

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  ⁷ “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. ⁹ “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.                 Matthew 6:6-9

If we don’t learn to pray, we’ll only learn to play at the life God has given us.  But when we pray, we need to go to the head of the table.  God sets the table and invites us to join Him there.  We must not stop at any other seat with our need, go to the head of the table.  Jesus made this possible for everyone who believes (John 15:16).  Listen carefully, we come into this Christian life by faith in Jesus, but we live this Christian life in the faith of Jesus.  Jesus went straight to the Father.  Don’t just believe in God, BELIEVE GOD!  We must go straight to Him who is our Heavenly Father, who sits at the head of the table with all our wants, worries, and weaknesses.  In the name of (success & victory of) Jesus we can go to the head of the table.  Praise God!

The Kitchen Table: The Game of Life  Day 36

“Prayer”

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.              Matthew 6:1

One of the biggest traps in life is becoming trapped in living for the attention of men rather than living in the attention of God.  And its easy to get caught up in the attention of others and never know or to forget what the accompaniment of God means to our lives.  It’s His presence that makes all the difference.  It’s what He can do that makes life purposeful, powerful, and pleasurable.  We do that, bringing God into our lives, through faith and believing.  But  we bring God into our days through prayer.

If we never learn to pray, we will only learn to play.  Believe it or not, it’s prayer that releases us for the attention of man to live in the affection of God.  John Wesley once said, “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.” 

Doing what we do to be recognized or accepted by others is merely playing at life as if we can control it.  There are so many more things we cannot control that end up controlling us.  Doing what we do to honor God and live within His supervision empowers us to live life, not just play at life.  And we do that through prayer.  Until we learn to pray, we will look for the attention, acceptance, and approval of man.  When we learn to pray, we will enjoy the affection, authority, and ability of God in our lives to live our lives in righteousness.

The Kitchen Table Devotional:          The Game of Life  Day 35

“Marriage”

 The disciples *said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹ But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given.      Matthew 19:10-11

The ability to dream is divine.  It’s one thing that separates from the animal kingdom.  But not all of us can delight in dreaming because our hearts have been darkened by disobedience and disbelief.  Disbelief and disobedience deaden the heart.  Living to violate rather than value ourselves and others we soon can’t see any other way to live or be married.  The heart must flex to imagine a divine life.  That flexibility is found in freedom and the forgiveness from disobedience that leads to disbelief.  Forgiveness breaks the bondage of disbelief and with disbelief gone, the heart can now believe in what God can do and bring into a marriage. 

This life was created by God to imagine and experience life with God.  That happens personally and that can happen corporately in marriage, but it takes a flexible heart.  Just imagine what life would be like for two people who can imagine God in their lives!  We need the freedom and forgiveness from what we’ve made marriage to be so that we can have the flexibility to imagine the marriage God made marriage to be. 

Marriage is more than sex, it’s a story of a man and a woman living together forever in the imagination of God for the imagination of God.  Let God heal the imagination and have the imagination of God to live, love, and laugh for a lifetime.