Author Rev. Dr. Don Vanzant

Classic Devotionals

Rev. Dr. Don Vanzant Leave a comment

Here are some classic authors. Most are available on Amazon, Kindle, or other book sites. You will like some more than others. Right now I am using My Utmost fpr His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I have used it perhaps five times over the years, and it is still new to me every morning. It is available daily for free to come to you in an email if you want. That is what I use right now, but I often print it out and put in my journal book so I can reflect on it during the day. Strange how God can speak through a man who lived a hundred years ago in a very different time and it is like he is in my closet. https://utmost.org/classic/today/

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This day we call “Good”

Rev. Dr. Don Vanzant Leave a comment

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.  Matthew 27:51 (ESV)

This day we call Good.  So much can be said, and yet to those of us who have heard it literally thousands of times, the reality of what happened that day can become — ordinary.  So many times we have said, “Jesus died for our sin.”  Please don’t think I am trying to make this world-changing truth ordinary or less in any way.  The danger lies in the personal practice of hearing it, accepting it, but not walking or living in it.  I have learned that to many Americans who were raised in the church and were taught the stories when young that they can (note I said “can”) become like nursery rhymes.  They know the story, but it does not change life.  I am not suggesting in any way that we cease to tell the story of this Friday, but I am merely noting that the truth and reality of that day is much more than we can grasp or understand.  The cross turns the world upside down.  It is an historical event that actually happened on Friday, April 3, 33 A.D.  (This date is according to New Bible Dictionary, InterVarsity Press.)  Yet because of the immense size and importance of the historical event it can elude our everyday experience.

I once visited the Church of Holy Sepulcher, one of the two sites thought to be where Jesus body lay after death.  It is an old building and in addition to the tomb there are a number of chapels and places of worship.  We were on a tour of one and I noticed a huge black chain hanging in the middle of the nave or large room of one church.  I asked the guide what it was and he replied, “Oh, that is the center of the universe.”   In retrospect I wish I had thought then to reply, “Well what about the six billion people on this earth that think they are the center of the universe?”  The point of the chain was that on this place something happened that changed the universe.

Among all that the trial, torture, abandonment, isolation, and sacrifice of this “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” there is as much as anything a long-planned seismic crack in the universe that was perfectly premeditated and executed by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The center of the universe changed that day, and we are still trying to grasp the magnitude of the event.  

The curtain of the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.   God had left the building, so to speak.  The Tent of Meeting in the Wilderness and the subsequent Temple in Jerusalem where the curtain hung were tangible signs and manifestations that God was with the people with whom he had established an irrevocable covenant.  There was a place to go to worship God.  He was not distant but lived in their land.  He had pitched His tent with His people.  The entire world was infected with sin and God had created a holy place, the Temple, where people could go and through their own actions and desires to be holy — clean — could go to that place where God was and experience a bit of heaven on earth.  Within the Temple the fruit was back on the tree, they were in the Garden once again, and God was pleased with them.  But that day when the sky grew dark and Jesus breathed his last breath after saying “It is finished” (John 19:30) the curtain was removed so that the taste of heaven, the presence of God could be released from a spatial GPS location into the lives of a Kingdom of Priests who had been made holy through the blood of Jesus.  Jesus said that the temple was no longer needed and that it would someday be destroyed.  It was destroyed on Sept. 2, 70 A.D.    God was doing far more than they could ask or imagine.

God was ushering in a new age, a new creation, where the Temple was no longer needed.  Now God’s dwelling place would be in humans.  The promises of Jesus to that effect in the Upper Room contained in John 13-17 are so startling that it is no wonder that the Jewish disciples could not receive them that night, but later remembered after they had been filled with the Holy Spirit, the promised power from heaven.   That is why Paul now calls the believers temples:

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV)

And he also refers to the church, the gathering of those who are “in Christ” as being a temple:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

That change is because of the sacrifice and the obedient life of Christ, but the change is vital and crucial to how we live every day.   The center of the universe has changed from a temple rock on Moriah where Abraham had been tested to a hill in the shape of a skull and a nearby empty tomb.

The earth shook, and the rocks were split.   Our sin was laid upon Jesus.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)   Creation is the first to respond.   There is an earthquake.   Perhaps the earthquake split the curtain.   We know it split rocks and the earth shook.

We Western folk often see things of God with a rather narrow vision, thinking that God deals only in things of the spirit, of the unseen dimension.  A reading of the first story of how things went wrong tells a different picture.   The curse that falls on the serpent, the man, and the woman in the garden does not involve just things of the spirit, but all of creation.  The entire world breaks because of the attempt to usurp the place of God by the humans.  Creation that bore God’s fingerprint now is in disarray as weeds and thorns choke the produce of the earth.

This One who is like no other, who rules even the wind and the sea, has done what no other could do.  He has crushed the head of the serpent.  The seed of the woman in the garden has at the right time destroyed the works of the evil one and His victory is demonstrated by the breaking of nature.  (Genesis 3:15)  This marks the beginning of a new age, accomplished by the One who was present at the first creation, in whom it all holds together.

When Jesus said “It is finished” on that day we call “Good” I think He meant that not only was His work done on earth in the defeat of Satan, but that the long wait of humans, exiled from the garden, was over — finished.

Satan has no power over us beyond what we yield to him.   It is finished!

So, you TEMPLES, you places in space and time where God Almighty lives, sit before the cross today in wonder and excitement with thankful expectation that God will do far more than you can ask or expect.  We see things dimly with only moments of clarity.  Ponder today the thought that it is finished. He died for you and what He did is so vast, so cosmic, that you will not grasp it until you meet Him face-to-face in glory. This is Good Friday!

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Lent 34 Saturday March 27, 2021 Rest

Rev. Dr. Don Vanzant 1 Comment

13 When Jesus heard the news about John, he left there in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, so they left their towns and followed him by land. 14 Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed those who were ill.  Matthew 14:13–14 (GNB) 

29 Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. Matthew 11:29 (GNB) 

 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 

Psalm 23:2–3a (ESV) 

A rested soul is the easy yoke.   John Ortberg 

I was born in the boring 1950’s.   Trust me, boring can be good.  Now boring is the ultimate insult or complaint.   It is possible that the time in which we now live might someday be remembered as being boring. 

Then, there was nothing to do on Sunday.   Nothing.   Everything was closed but church.   I once heard a pastor thank a man for coming as the man left the church building on Sunday.  The man replied, “What else is there to do.”   So true.  Some churches enforced a Sabbath rest law.  You might be reprimanded for working on Sunday.  We were farmers which meant there was livestock to feed and water, but there would be no field work.  One neighbor attended one of those Sabbath rest churches and he never worked on Sunday where anyone could see him.  He “rested” in his machine shed repairing the equipment to work on Monday, first light.  His body did rest a little, but his soul was working overtime. 

John Ortberg in his book Soul Keeping remarks that Jesus was busy, but never in a hurry.  He was hard pressed by the desperate crowds who sought him constantly.   If you pay attention, you will see that He was almost in danger from the crowds.  Once he taught from a boat because the crowds were so extreme.   (Matthew 13:2)  He had the potential for great pressure and stress and yet there is no record of Jesus ever being in a hurry.   Ortberg notes the differences between Busy and Hurry: 

Busy 

  • A full schedule 
  • Many activities 
  • An outward condition 
  • Physically demanding 
  • Reminds me I need God 

Hurried 

  • Preoccupied 
  • Unable to be fully present 
  • An inner condition of the soul 
  • Spiritually draining 
  • Causes me to be unavailable to God 

We cannot follow Jesus and live in the Kingdom of God with a hurried soul.  Jesus was busy, but never hurried.  If we are hurried and have the symptoms above, we may not be physically exhausted, but spiritually exhausted.  We might be suffering from a tired soul.  The remedy that cannot be neglected is what Jesus did.  When he was pressed, he went away in prayer.  When John the Baptist was killed, which meant that the cross was getting closer, Jesus went away to pray. 

There are very few people I know who say that they follow His pattern.  Almost all lament the pace of life and the inner hurry from which they suffer.  Yet very few today are speaking of the REST that is offered to the followers of Jesus when they practice a daily and weekly rhythm as Jesus did.  Let us change our corner of the world.  Let us live in soul rest and teach our children, co-workers, and neighbors how to live busy but unhurried lives. 

Resting requires humble, submissive effort. 

This weekend you will be busy.  It is Spring.  There are things to do.  The more there is to do, the more you need to take some time to sit at the feet of Jesus, be that on the back porch, in your prayer space, on a hike, or anywhere that you might engage the Creator and allow Him to do His will in restoring your soul.   He is waiting. 

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Lent 33 Friday March 26, 2021 Cut it Off!

Rev. Dr. Don Vanzant 1 Comment

8 “If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. 9 And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.  Matthew 18:7–8 (The Message) .

Ouch!  Of course, we know that Jesus didn’t mean us literally to cut off hands and feet and pluck out eyes.   That kind of self-mutilation is a sign of mental disorder, not of genuine holiness.   It’s like the two-ton millstone round the neck: a huge exaggeration to make the point.   So let’s not throw this in the Crazy Religious Nuts box just yet.   Jesus is teaching something vital to all who want to follow Him all the way to Jerusalem to pure, total freedom from the chains of the past and from the “flesh mind.”

Anyone who has ever tried to break a bad moral habit will know that it sometimes feels like cutting off a hand or foot.   Anyone who tries to stop a bad attitude towards others will know that it’s almost as hard as plucking out an eye.   And the habits and attitudes that Jesus has in his sights in this passage are as hard as any.

Cutting off the ‘hand’ that refuses to give to the poor; cutting off the ‘foot’ that refuses to walk to the soup kitchen to help out; and, in particular, plucking out the ‘eye’ that refuses to notice the weak, the vulnerable, the helpless all around us, in our cities, on our streets, in our wider world: all these pose a challenge every bit as severe today as the day Jesus first issued it.  N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone.

It would be easier but not as effective if He had made a list of things we must stop doing.  Therefore, if you love me and want to go to heaven when you die, stop these things: exaggerating your stories, avoiding difficult people, looking at porn when you feel alone, spending money you don’t have to make yourself feel better, pointing out your spouses flaws, fudging your expense report, etc.   You get the idea.   In essence, that was the system of the Scribes and Pharisees who got so upset with Jesus (you know they are going to kill him don’t you) because He went to the people doing those things (tax collectors and sinners) and did not give them the list!

There are so many negative examples here of what not to do.   I think of one from church history for those of you wanting to go deeper.   His name was Origen  185-254.   Warning: rabbit trail.  Go there later!

My wife and I began our walk with Jesus to Jerusalem when we were twenty-six and loved our hard rock.   We were 1970’s Hippies and had a lot of records and a big sound system.  We loved everything from Hendrix to Zeppelin and spent a lot of time and money at concerts and . . . .   You can imagine.   (Note: no one ever tells a testimony about being a nerd and repenting of studying too much.)   Anyway, we decided that the old habits were blocking us so we hauled the records outside and burned them all!  Now just to finish my brag, let me note that what was available in Christian music was not what we have today.  It was rather soft and squishy or it was four men singing four-part harmony in matching suits.  It was a rough turn.  It did hurt.  And since then many have challenged our decision, but in retrospect it was necessary and from God.  We were stopping something so we could start something better.  Is the possession of rock music sin?  It would make the list for some enforcers, but this is why we do not have comprehensive lists.  Rather we learn by sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning His ways.

He calls us to follow.  Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to leave their fishing businesses and their family to follow.  They could not do both.   They had to stop something to start something.  They could not do both.   We are no different.  Some things block us from following.  Some things distract us.

I once visited Celebrate Recovery at a church and after the opening worship went with other men to a small group for those not in substance abuse recovery, but in recovery for other things.  There a young man told of his struggle with porn and that he had put his laptop computer out in the trash that week.  We were shocked.   How will he function without his right hand?  One member suggested that was a bit extreme.  He could have sold the computer and given the money to homeless.   (Mark 14:3-5)  The “helper” was told that we do not make suggestions.  We listen.  That incident has remained with me for many years.  “If your laptop causes you to stumble, THROW IT AWAY!  It is better to go through life without a computer than to suffer the attacks of Satan forever.”

Those are two extreme examples.   We probably do not have such interesting hands and eyes to control.   Our cuts and plucks are probably less interesting and dramatic, but most important all the same if they keep us from following Jesus 100%.   That is where He is leading and we can sense it.  He wants all of us, and we need all of Him!

As we walk with Jesus, we notice that the hill gets a little steeper the further we go.   This is not a picnic or a site-seeing excursion.    This is real life.   There are many things in our way that block and distract us.  In deciding to spend a time of silence in solitude for Lent we ALL were confronted with the distractions.   But the issue is not to list them, but to listen to Jesus today concerning the ONE thing that is blocking and distracting us.   We don’t know the second one until we decide to give up — cut off or pluck out — the first. It is probable that many of our losses, our failures and issues that we consider to be unwanted and problems, actually are God’s hand of grace removing from our lives competing distractions.

Only Jesus knows.    Have courage.   Stop so you can start.

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Lent 32 Thursday March 25, 2021 Ask

Rev. Dr. Don Vanzant Leave a comment

5 Then he said, “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. 6 An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’ 7 “The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’ 8 “But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need. 9 “Here’s what I’m saying: Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open. 10 “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in.  Luke 11:5–10 (The Message)

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, ‘Prove that you are a good person.’ Another voice says, ‘You’d better be ashamed of yourself.’ There also is a voice that says, ‘Nobody really cares about you,’ and one that says, ‘Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.’ But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, ‘You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.’ That’s the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That’s what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us ‘my Beloved’.  Henri J.M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith

There is a difference between asking and telling.  There is a difference between receiving and taking.  One difference is relationship.

How strange it is to me that Jesus must tell us how to ask.  Part of it may be the context of his words.  In his Roman pagan world where there were gods and goddesses for every need.  If you needed rain, there was a god in whom to go and make a sacrifice to get what you wanted.  If your cow was sick, same procedure.  You give to get.  The gods were thought to provide what was needed in exchange for a sacrifice to the men who controlled access to them, the priests.   That makes sense to our ego driven minds.  You give to get.   Jesus says, “No, the Almighty God is not like that.   Just ask!”

This reading today is in the form of a parable.  Most parables are not allegories.  In an allegory each character represents someone.  In this parable, God is not like a sleeping neighbor who is a bit irritated by our knocking on the door.  The exact opposite is true.  If our grumpy sleeping neighbor will get up and give us bread, then how much more will our Father provide when we ask?  Oh!  Jesus is telling us to have a boldness that rests on relationship, not quid-pro-quo.   This is not just routine asking, but a holy persistent boldness that is formed by our relationship through our Friend who desires to give us the Kingdom!  Remember he said:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Matthew 16:19 (ESV)

And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven.  A yes on earth is yes in heaven.  A no on earth is no in heaven. Matthew 16:19 (The Message)

You have access.  You have been instructed to ask.  This asking is done by the bonds of relationship.  Your boldness and persistence can only grow by spending time with the One who tells you to ask, seek, and knock.  You cannot give Him anything He needs other than your love.  And it is in the asking, the seeking, and the knocking that we are deeply imprinted with the relationship truth that He is God, we are not, and in that truth, He gives and we receive.

Father, we remember now that we are right here with you and that you are in our midst and that you love us and that you long for us to be healed and whole and that we do not do any of this on our own and that this universe is a perfectly safe place for us to be and that you are closer than the air we breathe. And so we ask that you would be at work now and help us and give us energy and openness and strength, and we pray this together in Jesus’ name. Amen. –  John Ortberg