Daily Devotional

When Lynn and I returned to Fresno after a 28-year absence, we came back as different people.  We were now among the redeemed of the Lord, having been birthed through faith in Jesus Christ.  I left as a teacher and a coach and came back as a pastor.

We bought a new house when we returned, having sold our Cypress Ave home in Reedley.  Virtually all our Christian formation was shaped while in that home.  Our oldest daughter, Amy, was distressed when she heard we sold it.  It was the only home she remembered!

But the real life we brought with us—our identity as Pastor and wife, our calling to a holy, free, and sanctified life. For the yard of our new Fresno home in 1999, I had a sign professionally made. I cleaned it off yesterday as I worked on the yard of our present home, several moves since Reedley.  Here is how that sign reads.

For the Lord will comfort Zion.
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
Isaiah 51:3, NASB

It was a sign by which I wanted to establish the atmosphere of our yard and home. But it was also a declaration of the newness of our lives. We went out as slaves to the world, the flesh, and the devil.  We came back free. The truth had made us free indeed! (John 8:31).  As you live your redeemed life in Christ, be reminded you do not have to any longer be enslaved to anything or anyone.  Cast off all your old sins and weaknesses.  You are a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Never again live an enslaved life, whether it is from your past, or your present circumstances.

We went out from Fresno seeking security, peace, and joy in the world. We came back having discovered that all that comes in the Spirit, is given at our new birth in Christ (Gal. 5:22–23). Part of our present inheritance in Christ is being able to live with the prosperity of soul (Psalm 37:11). This is our default setting in Christ. Do not let anyone or anything take it from you. Ever.

We went out with crippled religious lives, hoping to please God in a kind of external and secondary way while pursuing life, marriage, and career on our own terms. But while working at Northview High School in Covina, CA, we were introduced to a new world. When we moved to Reedley from there in 1973, it was not long before the Lord Jesus Himself called us to that new life that we had only looked upon in Covina.

But after trying too hard (my norm) for over 5 years to be some kind of super Christian, the best Christian, in my faulty competitive zeal I crashed. Then I gave up, a new experience for me, and threw my life onto Christ. I died to self at that time and emerged a free and transformed man.

I began living that new kind of Christian life. I learned that I could please God completely every day. No more striving, only to fall short! Peace, joy, and fruitfulness characterized my way, and I was soon called as a pastor.

As you go about your born-again Christian life, be encouraged to know that you can do God’s will completely every day.  All God’s will for that day. Never again allow yourself to live in some kind of futility, always seeking to please God but never really succeeding. You are fully equipped and capable of living a victorious and fruitful Christian life every single day (2 Peter 1:2–4). Learn how to do that, and accept nothing less!
 
Perfect?  No.  Blameless and pleasing to God?  Yes!

He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord.

He will do it!  He will transform even your driest and most wasted areas.  He will comfort.  He will provide the joy and gladness, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

********************************************************************************

For some study, read Ephesians 1, 2 Peter 1, Colossians 1-3, Philippians 4.
Read, play & sing - Dwelling in Beulah Land, by C. Austin Miles.
Live on that mountain! Drink at that fountain!

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation