Deitrich Devotionals

If you’ve read my blog posts much, you’ll realize that I like finding ways of applying what I’m reading in the bible to my life. Today, as much as love is always applicable to life (and 1 John, the book of the New Testament that I’m currently devouring, is full of verses about love), I’d also like to point out some thoughts here and there I had when I realized that my daily scheduled Bible reading was about (and included) zombies, slaves, and prostitutes.

Zombies:

I’m fairly sure things that could be considered zombies are referenced in the end of Daniel. In the end of Daniel 11, Daniel describes his vision of the tyrant king of the end times and how he will suddenly die. After this, in Daniel 12, Michael the Archangel rises up, and (Daniel 12:2) “many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.” Whether or not this means that there will be undead corpses roaming the earth until they are brought to their everlasting life or eternal separation is debatable, but most certainly this is a testament to the life after death that exists and that we can look forward to.

Love:

I’ve been breezing past it a lot in this blog because John repeats himself so much, but his message of love is true and valuable. 1 John 4:7 tells us that “love comes from God,” and “[a]nyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:10-11 teaches us that “this is real love — not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. {11} Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” And now, here it is, the application, of why we love and what this does in our journey of faith: “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.” (1 John 4:17).

Slaves:

Psalms 123:1-2 (NLT) read as follows: “I lift my eyes to you, O god, enthroned in heaven. We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.” Two quick thoughts here. 1) Slaves have to constantly watch for what their master wants done. So, if we are looking to God and his mercy like a slave, that would be constantly, always watching for him and his deliverance. Always looking to God. That leaves very little time to look to anything else in your life. 2) We also should constantly be watching God for His signals, however slight, of what He wants us to do to accomplish His will. He is a speaking God, and I have to wonder what could be accomplished if his people were a listening people.

Prostitutes:

“The man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but if he hangs around with prostitutes, his wealth is wasted.” (Proverbs 29:3)

Love wisdom, and dad will be happy. Okay, that makes a good deal of sense. I’m nowhere near having kids, but I can imagine that I’d be overjoyed if my son valued wisdom. Then come the prostitutes, glooming up a happy family values verse. I’m hoping that it’s more than slightly obvious that hanging around prostitutes in any way other than how Jesus hung around them is a bad idea. But, let’s push the metaphor, can we? (My dad loves metaphors and wisdom. Does this mean he is twice as joyful?) Prostitutes deplete resources, and in an unhealthy way. What else are our prostitutes in life, that take up our money, time, and talents, and in ways that are unhealthy and distract us from God? Take a minute right now to identify a prostitute in your life that you should stop spending your time, money, and talents on, and then think of how instead you can use the recovered resources in a God honoring activity.

Thanks for bearing with an offbeat trip through the Bible today. I learned a lot more than I expected to, and I hope you did too.

May your strength be renewed in the Lord,

Zachariah