Use this devo as you are able, in whole or in part. Don’t feel compelled to read it all. Simply read and meditate upon whatever catches your attention. The goal is enjoying time with God through His Word and in prayer. Questions about the devotional elements?

Call to Prayer

“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.” (Ps. 145:13)

Prayer of Confession

Father, I praise you for the story of salvation you reveal in the Bible. Good news spills out on every page—in the created goodness of Eden, through your promises to Abraham and the pointed proclamations of the prophets, even in the strange sacrifices and ceremonies of the law. And of course, I hear the gospel most clearly in your dear Son, Jesus. In his name I pray, amen.(Prayer based on the Heidelberg Catechism, Question 19)

*Prayer borrowed from Philip Reinders’ Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

Lent Devo: Backyard Pilgrim

Throughout Lent this year we will follow along over the next 40 days with quotes from Backyard Pilgrim by Matt Canlis which gives us a daily Bible Path (the story of God’s redemption) and Parish Path (a literal path through town where you can walk and ponder what God has shown you through his Word).

BIBLE PATH

Day 14: Adam’s Silence | Read: Genesis 3:2-6

BIBLE PATH

Eve is often credited with leading humanity astray. After all, she’s the one who listened to a talking serpent. She took the deadly fruit’s first bite, and gave it to Adam. 

Gave it to Adam? What’s he doing there? 

Eve certainly took several foolish steps toward getting lost, but Adam watched her do it. And his was a deadly silence. Adam’s silence ensured the serpent’s success. 

Eve wasn’t there when God gave Adam the command about not eating deadly fruit. She heard it secondhand from Adam. When Eve repeats God’s command to the serpent, she adds something God never said: “You must not touch it.” 

Why does she say this? Does she say this because Adam added to God’s word? “Eve, there’s this tree God warned me about. It’s in the middle of the garden. Don’t look at it. Don’t even go near it. And don’t you ever touch it. God said so.” 

If the first step to getting lost is listening to a talking serpent, the second step is saying nothing when your best friend is about to get poisoned. There may have even been an earlier step of adding to God’s directive—a prelude to Eve’s getting lost. 

Here i am . . . silent. 

PARISH PATH

Stand at the crossroads again. Your pilgrimage is becoming a pattern of learning to go home instead of getting lost. It’s also a pilgrimage that will help you help others return home. 

Is there something you need to say to a friend who is taking foolish steps? Are there any foolish steps you are taking? Is there some good word or path God has made clear, but a serpent is trying to twist or tempt you to doubt? Listen to God’s word. Trust God’s parenting. Choose the path that believes what God says, not what other voices promise.

Sermon Devo

We are in our Winter series through the book of James. Each day we will dig into a different aspect of this New Testament wisdom book which will, by the end of the week, help to give you a fuller portrait of the kind of lives we are called to live as Christians.  

James 3:13-4:12

Perhaps this week you have been wondering: “Wisdom is great, and I’m not sure what Micah’s obsession with J.I. Packer is all about, but when are we going to get to talking about some of the bigger themes in our passage?” 

Well…wonder no longer! We’re digging into the the rest of our passage in greater detail today. 

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” James dives right into our troublesome existence as the church. He doesn’t pretend that everything is okay, and he doesn’t call it like he sees it, but rather he calls it like God sees it, which is to say, he brings everything back down to the heart level. 

You desire…” James says, and this is very true. The Christian faith, unlike many of its real life and fictional depictions over the years, is not about moral reformation. It’s about a reformation of the heart, our inmost being, that God works in his children from the moment they believe until their dying breath. 

We desire, and we desire wrongly, and so we murder, we covet, we fight, we refuse to ask and try to obtain what our souls most deeply desire through our own means. It’s a jump all the way back to the garden lie. Our convex desires (self-centered and turned in upon ourselves) turn adulterous and hostile to God, the lover and king of our souls. 

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us? But he gives more grace…

We struggle with God’s right jealousy over us. We treat him like a crazed lover who bizarrely obsessed with us (cue Regina George from Mean Girls, “Why are you so obsessed with me?”). 

But we’ve gotten the plot all wrong. The biblical story has us cast as the bride who, after her wedding day, wakes up with daily amnesia about to whom she owes fidelity. Sometimes it gets really bad (have you read Hosea?), and we might rightly wonder, “How on earth does God find it in himself to find us, clean us up, and bring us home again?”

REFLECT: The answer is right there in James. “…he gives more grace…” We’ll dig into the rest of what James says about how to experience this grace tomorrow, but for now let’s realize that God’s grace is God’s response to our hooking up with other spiritual partners. He’s rightly jealous for us, for our affection, but he’s also more forgiving than anyone we’ll ever meet. What paradox! What grace! Spend some time thanking God for the fact that he “gives more grace” than we could ever ask or imagine!

Evening Prayer of Examen

  • Where did you move with or feel close to Jesus today?
  • Where did you resist or feel far from Jesus today?
  • Where is Jesus leading you tomorrow? Ask for joy as you follow him.

Benediction

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.” (Ps. 130:5)