Blog Post

Five Minute Devotional — 04/06/2011

  • By John Batts
  • •
  • 08 Apr, 2011
  • •
Here in our area of the Pacific Northwest, it’s pretty unusual to see the sunshine without it being obscured by a layer of clouds – at least at this time of year. So when the sun does peek out from … Continue reading →
Here in our area of the Pacific Northwest, it’s pretty unusual to see the sunshine without it being obscured by a layer of clouds – at least at this time of year. So when the sun does peek out from behind the clouds, there are some things that happen only at those times:
  • Sunvisors go down
  • Windows go down (even if it’s cold outside!)
  • Jackets come off
  • Shadows are cast
In fact, it was the shadows that God drew my attention to this morning as I was on my way to work, as each of the cars on the road was casting its shadow on the pavement as it sped along.  Shadows, interestingly enough, can remind us of some important spiritual truths as Christians:
1)     If you face the light, you can’t see your shadow. – If you want to see your own shadow, the only way to do that is to look away from the light.  If you are facing the light and keep looking at it, there’s no way that you can see the shadow you’re casting, because it will always be behind you.  We can’t look at true darkness and true light at the same time.  It just doesn’t work that way.  The same thing holds true for us as Christians.
Consider what the Bible says —
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)
…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
You can sense God’s intended pattern in this verse – when we are willing to admit that we’re headed in the wrong direction (i.e., towards the darkness due to our sin), when we turn from living life that way, and when we turn towards God in prayer, seeking His face, His promise to us is three-fold:  He will hear us…He will forgive us…and He will heal us!
We need to recognize darkness for what it is – the absence of light.  And while we may be attracted to “dark” things in our “flesh”, we need to remember what it means to be a Christian:
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
As long as we remain here on earth, there will be an internal struggle within each of us regarding certain sinful activities.  But, when we die to ourselves and live through Christ, then the strength that comes from Jesus gives us the ability to choose to avoid those things that are sinful.  The ultimate key is keeping our eyes on Jesus, “the Light of the world” ( John 8:12 )!
2)     Shadows are cast by objects that block the light. – It’s a rare occurrence, but from time to time – depending on where you live – you get to experience the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse.  The last total eclipse viewable from the continental US was in 1979, and the next one won’t be until 2017.  What makes these so special is that the moon completely blocks the sun, casting a complete shadow in a thin band along the moon’s orbit pathway.  The funny thing is the size difference between the moon and the sun – the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon!  What allows the moon – which is so much smaller than the sun – to completely block the sun’s light is the closeness of the moon to us compared with the closeness of the sun.  In other words, the moon is a lot closer to us than the sun, so it’s easier for it to block out the sun’s light. 
Carrying this over to our walk with Christ, there are things that we may encounter or experience in life that can interfere with our relationship with God through Jesus.  We may go through some tough times (illness, death of a loved one, loss of a job, etc.)…or guilt over bad choices we’ve made…or just busy lifestyles.  The problem is that the farther away we get from God, the easier it is for these things to overwhelm us, to stress us out, to frustrate us, etc.  While God doesn’t change ( Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the LORD, I do not change…” , NKJV), sometimes we change in relationship to Him.  So He may seem smaller, even though He isn’t…and when He seems smaller, it allows our problems to seem bigger.
The best solution is to move away from our problems and draw near to God!
Psalm 73:25-28 (NKJV)
Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works.
3)     Shadows follow us wherever we go. – I think that almost every child, at some point, tries to outrun his or her shadow.  There’s a certain fascination behind the way a shadow does exactly what we do – we wave, and it waves back…we dance, and it dances with us.  Yet, while that’s a lot of fun with a physical shadow, it’s not nearly as much fun with a spiritual “shadow” over our lives.  Sometimes we allow feelings of guilt and shame to shackle us down – it seems like no matter what we do or where we go, we’re haunted by some memory of a past mistake we’ve made.  Those memories follow us around like a shadow…just with a lot more weight.
In times like that, it’s important that we remember the source of the baggage – Satan himself.  The Bible describes him as the one who accuses us of wrongdoing day and night before God ( Revelation 12:10 ).  He’s the one who is trying to trip us up with memories of things we’ve done wrong and past sins in our lives.  But consider things from God’s perspective:
1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Psalm 103:11-13 (NKJV)
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him.
From God’s perspective, when we confess our sins to Him, by His grace He forgives us…He cleans us up…and He removes all evidence of our sins from us.  God gives us the gift of His righteousness ( Philippians 3:9 ).  As far as God is concerned, the ugly stain of sin in our lives has been removed, and He has washed us as “white as snow” ( Isaiah 1:18 ).  Keeping this in mind allows us to maintain the right perspective on the sin we’ve confessed to God…it’s memory may follow us around, but – just like our shadow – it doesn’t have any power over us!
Of course, there are many more analogies that can be made.  Yet, in the end, our focus needs to be on Jesus at all times, doing like it says in 1 John 1:7 – “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” (NKJV)
As the days get longer and we start seeing the sun more and more, let the sunshine remind us to not only spend time in the sun, but also to forget about those spiritual shadows that like to follow us around and invest our time with the Son!
Have a blessed day today!
–Pastor John

The Holy Spirit, Pentecost, and the Old Testament

By John Batts • May 29, 2018
Acts 2:1-4 (NKJV) -- "When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

Following Jesus' ascension, the disciples did just as Jesus had commanded them -- they remained together in Jerusalem and waited on the giving of the Holy Spirit before they continued with what is known as the Great Commission. (Jesus said, as recorded in Acts 1:8 -- "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." NKJV) As we read in Acts 2:1-4 (shown above), the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost, empowering the disciples to speak in other languages, resulting in the message of the Gospel being shared simultaneously with thousands of people!

But why did this happen on the Day of Pentecost? Certainly, there were a lot of people in Jerusalem -- this was a celebration day that would be accompanied by a lot of activity. So, from a strategic sense, there was good reason for this to happen on this day. However, could there be more? I think so...in fact, from my initial study of Scripture, it appears to be linked to the Old Testament in a way that completely glorifies God!

First, it's important to understand the significance of the Day of Pentecost. The word "Pentecost" refers to "fifty days". In the Old Testament, the Day of Pentecost is directly linked to the Jewish festival "Shavuot", in the Bible known as the Festival (or Feast) of Weeks. It is a celebration that commemorates when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai -- an event that occurred fifty days after the Passover, when the Jewish people were freed from bondage and enslavement to the Egyptians. (From Wikipedia -- "On Passover, the Jewish people were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.")

Interestingly, the Festival of Weeks is also referred to in Scripture as Day of First Fruits, a celebration of the harvest that God gave His people, and is linked to the Feast of Harvest (see Exodus 23:16 ) as well. God's people would celebrate how God had taken care of them and would offer back to God the first-fruits of their harvest as a way of honoring God.

Here's where it gets so incredible -- look at the similarities and the significance of the two events, from the Old Testament and the New Testament:

1) In the Old Testament, the Passover celebrated when the Jews were freed from enslavement and Pentecost celebrated when they became a nation committed to God. In the New Testament, the crucifixion of Christ during Passover week is something we look back to as a time when humanity was provided freedom from being enslaved to sin...and at Pentecost, through the giving of the Holy Spirit, it's a celebration of entering a new relationship with God.

2) In the Old Testament, as you read the accounts, you find that -- when God gave the law (the Torah) to Moses on Mount Sinai, He wrote the 10 Commandments Himself on the tablets of stone. (see Deuteronomy 9:10 ) God Himself carved the 10 Commandments into the stone to signify the covenant relationship He had with His people. In the New Testament, the image of the Holy Spirit being given to the disciples mimics the finger of God -- in this case, it was as tongues of fire, signifying the beginning of a new covenant relationship God was initiating with all of humanity, to all those who would trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. In both cases, God "sealed the deal" symbolically through a direct intervention.

3) Of course, with Pentecost being directly tied to the Feast of Harvest, there is a direct correlation to the harvest the disciples experienced following the giving of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:41 tells us the following: "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them." (NKJV) And, just as the Jewish people would make a sacrifice of first-fruits on this day, we see the early church members also making a sacrifice of their own -- Acts 2:44-45 says, "Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need."

These are just some parallels that I felt God impressing upon my heart as I was preparing for a Bible study in 2009. While not meant to be exhaustive in any way, for me it just serves as a reminder of how intentional God is about everything He does... He is truly amazing!

Five Minute Devotional — 02/28/2012

By John Batts • February 29, 2012
Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself:  You are talking with someone, and the conversation gets a little tense…the topic, a little bit “touchy”.  One of you says something, and the other – in the tension of the moment – thinks that … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 12/16/2011

By John Batts • December 19, 2011
This morning, I read a news story about some good Samaritans who are helping others anonymously. All around the country, with the focus on Kmart stores, there are nameless people who are making payments towards other people’s layaway accounts — … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 10/13/2011

By John Batts • October 14, 2011
Several weeks ago, we adopted a couple of kittens that had been rescued by our veterinarian’s office staff. One of the kittens was a small, mostly black little girl that we named “Shadow”. The other kitten was a mostly gray … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 10/10/2011

By John Batts • October 11, 2011
Now that we are more than a decade into the 21st Century, it’s pretty amazing when you stop and think about all the technological advances that have come our way:  There are cars that can parallel park for themselves.  There … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 09/09/2011

By John Batts • September 9, 2011
Where were you? Lots of people are asking that question as we get closer to the 10th Anniversary of 9-11. I remember talking with my co-worker, Jackie, while I was driving into work that morning.  I had been listening to … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 04/08/2011

By John Batts • April 9, 2011
Over the years, you have probably heard of some of the frivolous lawsuits that have been brought against companies in this country.  For instance, there have been lawsuits by prisoners against the state because of things like their mashed potatoes … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 03/15/2011

By John Batts • March 16, 2011
It’s hard to go a day without hearing about the terrible tragedy that continues to unfold in Japan. After being hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake…and an over 20-foot tsunami…and scores of aftershocks, many of which have been over 6.0 … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 03/03/2011

By John Batts • March 3, 2011
I read this news story today, as posted on www.foxnews.com: Baby Brought Back to Life After Being Frozen 3 Days A stillborn baby was brought back from the “dead” after doctors froze her body for three days, British media reported … Continue reading →

Five Minute Devotional — 03/02/2011

By John Batts • March 3, 2011
I have driven literally hundreds of thousands of miles all around the United States. In all my travels, I’ve noticed two important things:  1) Every single state has incredible natural beauty.  2) When it comes to being on the road, … Continue reading →
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