Devotions

Psalm 107 has been called “the Old Testament love feast.” One of the most encouraging passages in all of God’s Word, it is for those needing forgiveness, deliverance or restoration. The final verse promises the reader an understanding of who God truly is. “Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43, NKJV).

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! For his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them" (Psalm 107:1-5).

Here is a classification of people who once knew the fullness of the Lord and at some time in their life discovered glorious deliverance. Now, however, they are in a solitary wilderness, wandering alone, and they cannot find the city.

"The city" in the Old Testament is always Zion, which represents God's true church. Today, of course, it signifies the true body of Christ, those who worship in spirit and in truth but cannot seem to find “the city.” They no longer attend church, refusing to worship with any body of believers because there is little or no spiritual reality to be found.

Indeed, there are multitudes of starving Christians who go from church to church today, trying to find their place. In the end, they give up even seeking a good church because they are determined that there are none. Perhaps you say, "Brother Dave, I can't find a Christ-centered, holiness-seeking church in my area. I can't find the city."

Beloved, God has provided a solution. "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place" (Psalm 107:6-7).

God says, "I will show you the body; I will lead you right to them." Rest assured, Jesus has his body of believers all over the world; and if you cry out to him, he will miraculously bring like-minded Christians to you.

Mary Magdalene epitomizes the believer whose heart is wholly given to Christ. This woman's life was marked by her love and affection for Jesus.

As far as the world was concerned, Mary Magdalene was not a great theologian. When the disciples got together to discuss the deeper things of the cross, she was probably silent, since women of that day rarely spoke openly of spiritual matters in the presence of men. Yet she had something they did not have; she had a revelation!

"The first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb" (John 20:1, NKJV). Mary came to the tomb while the others still slept. When she found the stone rolled away and Jesus’s body missing, she ran to find Peter and John.

When the disciples arrived at the tomb, they went in and saw the linen clothes neatly folded but no body. They understood clearly that Jesus was not there. The Bible says the two disciples "...saw and believed" (John 20:8). They remembered Jesus’s words to them about his resurrection on the third day. Two verses later, we read, "Then the disciples went away again to their own home" (John 20:10). They were satisfied with the knowledge that Jesus was no longer there, so they went back to business as usual.

Isn't that just like the church today? Many Christians say, "I've seen the power of the gospel so, of course, I believe." They identify their present relationship with Jesus by mere head knowledge. Not so with Mary. Knowledge was not enough for her. She wanted Jesus himself, and she was not going to move. "But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping" (John 20:11).

Mary’s spirit was crying, "This world is intolerable without him. I can't go home." She simply loved the Lord, and she was determined to stand gazing into that tomb until her breaking heart found answers. Sure enough, Mary's heart of devotion brought her a visitation of the divine.

"And as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting . . . where the body of Jesus had lain" (John 20:11-12). While the other disciples were back home, Mary was seeing things nobody else could see because her heart was given to Jesus.

Jesus warned his followers, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44, NKJV).

A characteristic of the bride of Christ is an expectancy of his soon return. Jesus’s bride is to live in continual, joyful expectation of his imminent return because he may come at any moment.

Jesus warned, however, that in the last days evil ministers will infiltrate the church in an effort to put the bride to sleep. They will attempt to take away her heart of love for her bridegroom by claiming, “My master is delaying his coming” (Matthew 24:48). This gospel is preached by those who do not want to pay the price of obeying Christ’s commands. They really do not want Jesus to come back because they have sinful habits and lead double lives; in fact, they have concocted a doctrine to justify their continuing in sin. What is the result of this false teaching? First, it ends in worldliness because those who believe it want to enjoy worldly success and prosperity.

Beloved, do not give in to this doctrine of delay! If you are a part of Jesus’s bride, you will be so lovesick for your Lord you will not be able to buy into it. Instead, you will cry out, “My Lord said I am to be ready at any moment for his return. I know he is near; I can sense it. My heart cries out within me, ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming!’”

The early church was wide awake, heeding Jesus’s words. Their lamps were trimmed and burning, and they had a good supply of oil. Peter summed up the spirit of the early church. “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:12-13). 

Finally, Paul said, “…you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:5-7).

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14, NKJV).

The disciples were twelve men beloved of God, precious in his eyes, full of love for his Son, pure of heart, in full communion with Jesus, yet they had dirt on their feet! Jesus, in essence, was saying to these men, “Your hearts and hands are clean, but your feet are not. They have become dirty in your daily walk with me. You do not need your whole body to be washed, only your feet.” The dirt Jesus mentions here has nothing to do with natural dirt. It is about sin, our faults and failures, our giving in to temptations.

No matter how dusty and dirty the roads were in ancient Jerusalem, no age has ever been as filthy as ours. I wonder how many of you reading this message right now have some dirt clinging to you. Perhaps this past week you fell into a temptation or failed God in some way. It is not that you have turned your back on the Lord. On the contrary, you love the Savior more passionately than ever, but you fell and now you are grieving because your feet are dirty.

Scripture tells us, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). The Greek word for trespass here means “a fall, a sin.” We are to restore every Christian who falls into sin if there is a repentant heart.

Foot washing, in its deepest meaning, has to do with our attitude about the dirt we see on our brother or sister. What do you do when you are face to face with someone who has fallen into a sin or transgression?

We are to take up the towel of God’s mercy and go to that hurting one. In the special love of Jesus, we are not to judge him, expose him, lecture or find fault. Instead, we are to commit to being his friend. We are to help him come to salvation by sharing the correcting, healing, washing, comforting Word of God.

A minister friend of mine went to go visit his brother; now his brother suffers from some mental illnesses and chemical imbalances and lives in a little trailer park. My friend was knocking on the door of his trailer, and his brother opened the door and started shooting at my friend. Two of the bullets passed within inches of his head.

My friend Nicky Cruz has told in his testimony how his mother would call him the son of Satan and punch him in the face, often until his eyes were swollen shut. She would lock him in a closet after that, sometimes for days. It got so bad that by the time he was 9 years old, he tried to hang himself. Now God is using Nicky to preach the gospel all over the world, but he knows what it means to grow up with great pain.  

Many of us may not have ever had an experience like my friends’, but we have a history of difficulty. This is the kind of world we live in with violence, hardship, suffering, strife between family members. Some of you have had a father or mother say, “You’re worthless.” Perhaps we experience haunting pulls from addictions or feel the weight of sexual sins. There’s the broken feeling of severe loneliness. Perhaps there’s people we love deeply who are in a crisis, and there’s nothing we can really do to help lift them out of their suffering, but it hurts us to watch them walk through their pain.

You and I need help. We need somebody stronger than us. We need a power outside of us. We need a savior and deliverer. We need Jesus.

The Bible gives us this promise: “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:17-19, ESV).

Jesus has reconciled our relationship with God. He’s the healer of our marriage and our children. He is the remedy for loneliness, for addiction and sin. He will relieve the pains of our hearts. He is the repairer of broken families. He is the restorer of lost hopes and dreams.