W. Spencer Perry

“I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.” 2 Corinthians 12:15 NLT Today’s devotional is titled “The Delight of Sacrifice” That verse summed up a lot of Paul’s existence. Persecution, trials and suffering due to his devotion and love for Christ and to share the gospel with others. It would seem that others loved him less. But the point is that service to Him has nothing to do with ourselves. Chambers says, “We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ.” “We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow.” “Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help himself to our lives. But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve.” The point is that surren...

“‘For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others …’” Matthew 20:28 NLT My biggest take away from this devotional was that, using Paul as an example, we can see that his love for Jesus drove him to serve others. If we serve for the cause of humanity we will be disappointed and dejected due to the ingratitude of those we serve. If we serve others out of a love for Jesus then we will always feel His gratitude even if those we serve don’t show any.  Paul had an interesting perspective. He hated and persecuted Jesus before the road to Damascus. He knew that no matter what kind of persecution or hatred he felt, it was nothing compared to what he had once felt for Jesus. That kind of grit was needed in those times and still needed today. It is not all easy work… Do for God, others will benefit, He gets the glory. Notice that our only part in the equation is the “doing”.

“Be still, and know that I am Lord!” Psalm 46:10 NLT Chambers discusses spiritual perseverance today. How perseverance is not the same as endurance. That, “It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for, is going to happen.” When that comes to the spiritual realm, it is “a call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated.” Our hope in Jesus can waiver. Or maybe we are having hopes and dreams that are constantly coming up in disappointment. Chambers says, “If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now, it simply means that they are being purified. Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and from God.” It is one of the greatest stresses - to wait and be still in the onslaught of disappointment. Perseverance, with eyes on the prize (Jesus) will reveal the results God intends for you. How you respond will reveal your true heart towa...

“‘Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me.’” Mark 14:6 NLT This is when Jesus and the disciples were in Bethany, making their way towards Jerusalem and Passover. Mary of Bethany takes the expensive jar of perfume and pours it over Jesus’ head. The disciples scold her and thought the act was wasteful, because the value of the perfume was almost a whole years wages. Jesus admonishes the disciples because they could not see the whole picture. This act of Mary was of great value to Jesus. She was anointing Him and preparing Him for burial. This act was the most she could do and was done out of love for Jesus. The earthly value was of little concern to Jesus.  I think we worry too much of how we can be of use to God - selling perfume, to help fund ministry. Instead of just surrendering to God. Chambers says, “To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and ...

“‘Come, let’s be going.” John 14:31 NLT Today’s devotional- “Taking the initiative against daydreaming” Chambers starts with a clarification regarding daydreaming - “Daydreaming about something in order to do it properly is right, but daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong.” Jesus had just revealed to His disciples that when He is fones He will be sending “another Advocate” - the Holy Spirit. He reveals how He will be raised from the dead, and that those that  believe in Him and accept His commandments and love Him will also be loved by God and He will come be with them. After all this revelation Jesus doesn’t say - go home and think about it, meditate on it. He says, “come, let’s be going.” Chambers explains that meditating quietly and waiting on God to speak is good. “Beware, however, of giving in to mere daydreaming once God has spoken. . . be careful to go and obey what He has said.” Chambers uses a great and simple example. If you are in love with someone, yo...

“‘Arise. . . shine,” Isaiah 60:1 “Taking the initiative against drudgery” is the title of the devotional. Chambers describes drudgery - “Drudgery is work that is far removed from anything we think of as ideal work. It is the utterly hard, menial, tiresome, and dirty work.” He goes on to discuss how Christ experienced this in the washing of the disciples feet in John 13. How Christ used this action as an example to the disciples - to go and do the dirty work, no complaining.   Chambers goes on to say, “In some cases the way a person does a task makes that work sanctified and holy forever. It may be a very common everyday task, but after we have seen it done, it becomes different.” This is an old note I wrote at the bottom of the page: Taking initiative, that first step, to do the dirty work, will be Spirit filled. The motivation might not be there to start the work but once started, “but once we arise, we find Him there.” So be positive, because He can transform you and the task....

“‘Up, let’s get going.’” Matthew 26:46 NLT The title of this day’s devotional is “Taking the Initiative Against Despair.” Chambers discusses how “the sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair.” We go into a self-pity hole of believing that what we did is unredeemable and we have ruined everything. In the Garden of Gethsemane the disciples were supposed to keep watch while Jesus prayed, but they kept falling asleep. Failing and causing Jesus’ eventually capture. Jesus finally tells them “it doesn’t matter now, get your rest, they are here. Get up, let’s get going.” Chambers says that Jesus approached them taking the spiritual initiative against despair saying “‘Get up, and do the next thing.’” Chambers sums it up with this: “If we are inspired by God, what is the next thing? It is to trust Him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption. Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.” Let the past be the past. Move on, and get going. Jesu...

“Get up and eat!” 1 Kings 19:5 NLT This is a great piece of scripture that Chambers relates to depression. Elijah, a prophet, was not aligned with the current king of Israel, Ahab. Ahab had set up altars to Baal and was not following God and His commandments. Elijah had just met with the prophets of Baal and challenged them to summon their god. This is the story where they both present a bull as an offering. The prophets of Baal petition and plea to their false god but no fire comes to consume the offering. Elijah then doused his altar and the bull with jar after jar of water. He then prays to God and the fire of God comes from heaven and consumes his offering. The people there exclaimed that Elijah’s God was the one true God. Elijah then ordered the people to seize the prophets of Baal and slaughter them.  After this Ahab’s wife Jezebel is enraged for she is a follower of Baal. She sends word that she is sending for Elijah to have him killed, for he has killed the prophets of Baal...

“… rise up from the dead…” Ephesians 5:14 NLT Today’s devotional speaks of God’s inspiration and our initiative. Sometimes God uses someone to encourage us, to inspire us, so that we can take initiative. God promises He will be with us and will help us. He doesn’t say He will DO everything for us. It takes movement on our part.  “When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, ‘Arise from the dead…,’ we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up.  This was a great reminder that to live a true life of faith, action is required. He wants us to respond - act - when He calls. 

“For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves.” Romans 14:7 NLT Am I my brothers keeper?  Yes, yes you are. We are to look out for our brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the biggest ways we can do that is to not help them to stumble by our unholy behavior.  “If you allow physical selfishness, mental carelessness, moral insensitivity, or spiritual weakness, everyone in contact with you will suffer.” “Am I willing to be of no value to this age or this life except for one purpose and one alone - to be used to disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ.” Earthly importance matters none to God. A true disciple of God is valued and loved by Him. Fame does nothing for God. What matters is if that person is in service to Him.  “My life of service to God is the way I say ‘thank you’ to Him for His inexpressibly wonderful salvation.”

“What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!” Matthew 10:27 NLT “Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him.” When we are going through dark times, we need to be still and listen. Jesus is trying to tell us something.  “Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying.” “Darkness is the time to listen.” It can be hard for us to turn to God in surrender and silence when things are going back. We want answers. We want solutions. We want Him to fix things the way that we think they need to be fixed.  If we can get to that place of “discipline of hearing”, He will give us a message and it will bless us. Chambers says we will feel a mixture of delight and humiliation - but that just means we have...

“And the Lord came and called as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel replied, ‘Speak, your servant is listening.’” 1 Samuel 3:10 NLT The Devotion of Hearing “If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things - things which I think I just do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?” Our own desires and wants drown out the voice of God. No matter how much we study and pray we have to remember to be quiet, wait, and listen.  Chambers put it this way, “If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, ‘You are My Friends…’ (John 15:14).”

"And they said to Moses, 'You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!'" Exodus 20:19 NLT Chamber's discussion today is about listening to God. The truth for most Christians is that they are not listening to God or patiently waiting to hear Him. Chambers says, "We don't consciously and deliberately disobey God - we simply don't listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them - not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him." That is hard to hear, but I know it's true. The pursuits of our own hearts push God aside and in a box that we only access when we really need Him, or on Sunday mornings. Chambers further goes on to explain how we would rather listen to one of God's servants, than God himself. Because then we can take the message as delivered from a human, and rationalize it to fit our world. Again, placing what we w...

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"  Isaiah 26:3 NLT The title of today's devotional is, "Is Your Mind Stayed on God". The basic message is what the scripture verse says - If you trust in God and fix your thoughts on Him, you will have His Peace. How? Chambers says, "If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you." Jesus Christ's sacrifice, His grace, brings salvation. We do nothing for that but believe the Gospel. But that is taking an action - faith, and belief. I feel like so often we are praying to God, crying out to Him but the words are empty because our hearts are hard, and we are not putting ourselves before Him. Try to make it a practice, when talking to Jesus, to place yourself before Him. In your mind. Then be still, and take your time. Don't be that person that is rushing the conversation, alw...

"Look up into the heavens. Who created the stars?" Isaiah 40:26 NLT Today's devotional tied into a lot of what we were discussing in bible study this morning - our new life in Christ, and how our intentions and focus should be firmly placed in God. We are studying 1 Peter, and in chapter 2 Peter is telling us that we must "get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech." (1 Peter 2:1 NLT). To do so we must seek what is pure. God and His word. Get our spiritual nourishment there. In doing so we are making that our cornerstone, and not the things of this world, that we seek and set as idols in place of God. Some quotes from the devotional:  "The people of God in Isaiah's time had blinded their minds' ability to see God by looking on the face of idols." "Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? It is your work? It is your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe yo...

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary.” Isaiah 40:28 NLT Chambers discusses “exhaustion” in today’s devotional. When our vital energies are worn out and spent.  “Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies.” He goes on to say that a believer that knows where to replenish their supplies - through connection to Christ in prayer, His word, Christian community etc - will: “have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God…. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you.” God does not grow weary. Seek Him if you are feeling lost or tired. Find Him in scripture, song, prayer, and as Chambers says, in a friend from whom you can draw God’s strength. Seek Him with the right intentions and with a humble heart. Put your worries and agenda aside. When you desire His closeness He will be there. 

“May the God of peace make you holy in every way…” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT To be made holy. Sanctified. This is another good guy punch or a devotional. Chambers says it best: “Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. SANCTIFICATION MEANS TO BE INTENSELY FOCUSED ON GOD’S POINT OF VIEW. IT MEANS TO SECURE AND  TO KEEP ALL THE STRENGTH OF OUR BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT FOR GOD’S PURPOSE ONLY.” We want to keep our faith and God in a little box off to the side. It is a part of our lives - not all of our lives. Chambers is clearly saying that everything else should be kept in the little box off to the side, and our intention and focus should be on Him.  The second half of the verse says, “… and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until out Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” Blameless is a word that stuck out to me the first time I read it...

“We has hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.” Luke 24:21 NLT What are your expectations of God? Of others? Are you feeling dejected? Depressed or burdened?  Chambers says, “Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources - I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust  means ‘I must have it at once.’ Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives answers.” Not my will but Your will be done, Father. We must be careful to not dictate anything to God or demand anything from God. We have seen that these are traps you can fall into. I think about the relationship God offers us. A Father, a Brother, a Friend. Think of your closest friend. Are you demanding of them? Do you blame them when t...

“As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.” 2 Timothy 4:6 NLT Chambers continues in the theme of being “poured out as an offering”. He says to “Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way.” Again, we might not like the sound of that. How will this disrupt my life? What if I don’t like what God sends my way?  If we are honest, sometimes service is for us. The good feeling it gives us, or the acknowledgement. So it is still done in your own will. If we are a sacrifice, then we must surrender - to be “bound to the altar” and let the fires burn, purify and separate us.  We must concede victory to God and surrender the conflict between my will and God’s will.  Chambers ends with this: “Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.” What are scared of? W...

“But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God” Philippians 2:17 NLT Paul is encouraging the believers in Philippi to stand strong in the faith, holding firmly to the “word of life.” That even in the face of death they can rejoice for their lives had been an offering to God.  Service is a hard thing for believers. I should say a hard thing to get right in God’s eyes. We want to dictate the terms of our service. We want to do things that get recognition - bring us a little bit of glory. Chambers talks about the willingness to serve and how we regard it as one thing if considered “a hero”, and another if it “requires becoming a doormat under other people’s feet.” “Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket - to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those your served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted - not seeking to be ministered to, but to ministe...

“Christ’s love controls us.” 2 Corinthians 5:14 NLT Paul’s life was compelled by the love of Christ. “People could perceive him as mad or sane - he did not care.” He lived to be a witness to Christ. Not of his own circumstances or salvation. “We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience.” This devotional is full of great quotes and Chambers says it better than I can.  Is your walk defined by your love of Christ and His love for you and others. That love that compelled Him to offer salvation to you. Are you helping others to find that straight and narrow path? Are you on it? “This total surrender to the ‘the love of Christ’ is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life.” That line hits me as I tend to struggle doing things my own way, in my own power. Surrender bears fruit. 

“… Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage…” 1 Corinthians 4:13 NLT This section of scripture talks about the good done by christians, yet they were still being persecuted. Chambers states that these word are not an exaggeration “… but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or ‘filth of the world.’”  He further goes on and states,  “We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, ‘I won’t submit; I won’t bow or bend.’ And you don’t have to – you can be saved by the skin of your teeth if you like.” “A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom of the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst ...

“Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!”  1 Corinthians 9:16 NLT I like the first couple of lines of the devotional today. “Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact of his salvation. That, however, is not the same as the call to preach, but is merely an illustration which can be used in preaching.” Later Chambers says, “We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Christ. But discipleship has an option with it ‘ If  anyone…’ (Luke 14:26).” This section of Luke is talking about the cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ…. IF you are willing to do this: put your love for Christ above everyone else in your life, bear your cross and follow Him.  Salvation is not conditional. Discipleship is optional, but obedience dictates that we must strive to be disciples. Discipleship and service is the response of our hearts to salvation.  Paul was com...

“For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News - and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.”  1 Corinthians 1:17 NLT The message here is that Paul came to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s work on the cross and redemption. It is all about Jesus. Chambers mentions that Paul does tell stories of his circumstances but only as illustrations, not the end point.  “ We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification – we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God.” God asks us to pray and commune with Him. That can come with a lot of requests. That is not wrong. But we need to always check ourselves and make sure we are not a one-sided friend. Asking and never giving.  Is it all...