Return to flip book view

Contents Acknowledgments Using this Book Introduction Ezekiel 37 1 14 ix xi xiii xvii 1 Your First Taste of Champagne A New Start Requires Forgetting the Past 1 2 Refreshing the Champagne Glass A Rejuvenated Heart Requires Jesus 9 3 Champagne s Mighty Rootstocks A Compelling Calling Requires Wisdom 13 4 Great Fruit Produces Great Champagne A Transformative Way of Life Requires the Holy Spirit 19 5 The Time between Harvest and Spring An Unexpected Ending Requires Faith 25 6 The Label on the Champagne Bottle The Dry Bones of a False Identity 31 7 The Urgency of the Harvest The Dry Bones of Missing God s Salvation 37 v 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 5 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

vi Contents 8 Champagne Undrunk The Dry Bones of Prayerlessness 43 9 Champagne Masters and Novices The Dry Bones of Neglecting God s Word 49 10 The House Style The Dry Bones of a Life that Doesn t Match One s Doctrine 55 11 Champagne Cork Gone Bad The Dry Bones of Sin 61 12 The Amazing Madame Clicquot Part 1 The Dry Bones of a Slothful Disciple 65 13 The Vineyard Manager The Dry Bones of Surrendering to the Enemy 71 14 Aging Champagne The Dry Bones of Fretting over Wicked People 79 15 Going Once Twice Sold The Dry Bones of Shipwrecked Treasures 85 16 In the Shadows of the Great Champagne Houses The Dry Bones of Seeking Your Own Glory 91 17 The Amazing Madame Clicquot Part 2 The Dry Bones of Neglecting Your Assignment 97 18 An Untrellised Vine The Dry Bones of Failing to Lighten the Burdens of Others 103 19 Champagne or Cr mant The Dry Bones of Competing First Loves 109 20 Harvest Time in Champagne The Dry Bones of Not Stopping 115 21 Unpredictable Weather The Dry Bones of Pride 121 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 6 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Contents vii 22 Reserved for the Champagne House The Dry Bones of Indistinctness 127 23 A Champagne Critic The Dry Bones of Condemning the Innocent 133 24 Gentle with the Champagne Grapes The Dry Bones of Unkindness 139 25 Bitter Champagne The Dry Bones of a Crushed Spirit 145 26 Out of Champagne The Dry Bones of Fearing an Empty Bank Account 151 27 Extravagant Champagne The Dry Bones of Fearing Missing God s Best 157 28 A Clean Champagne Glass The Dry Bones of Fearing God s Rejection 163 29 Recorking a Champagne Bottle The Dry Bones of Fearing God s Timing 169 30 An Empty Champagne Bottle The Dry Bones of Fearing a Life Lived in Vain 175 31 A Transplanted Vine A Renewed Life Requires Being a Servant of Jesus 181 Epilogue Endnotes About the Author 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 7 187 189 191 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 4 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Using This Book C hampagne without Bubbles is a 31 day devotional for those thirsty for God to bring spiritual vitality to their lives especially when life seems broken While the book was written with a Christian audience in mind the book is accessible to all who have experienced the pain disappointments and struggles of life and wonder if there is something that will fill life with hope purpose and love Each of the 31 daily readings is structured the same A Champagne analogy introduces each spiritual topic The spiritual topic is then explored from the viewpoint of the struggles we face and the wisdom and guidance we receive from God s Word A closing prayer then follows To assist with making the daily reading a reality in our lives I conclude with three suggestions Scripture to meditate upon a worship song I hope will resonate with the heart and several simple ideas tips to take action The Champagne theme was selected for one primary reason Champagne is the drink of choice to celebrate life s xi 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 11 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

xii CHAMPAGNE WITHOUT BUBBLES greatest and grandest of moments as well as ushering in a new year full of hope and new beginnings This is analogous with the spiritual vitality hope and effervescence that God brings about in renewing our lives Ezekiel 37 1 14 The Valley of Dry Bones is one of the Bible s classic texts on spiritual renewal and was chosen as the backbone for each day s reading The dry bones are synonymous with the things that are broken in our lives Each day s reading incorporates Ezekiel s valley of dry bones and is used as a transition point between the broken areas in life and the path God calls us to follow that leads to spiritual refreshment The contrast between Champagne and dry bones is intentional to help the reader contrast the spiritual wasteland of the current situation with the refreshing streams of living water offered by God God shows us our dry bones because He wants to do something with them to renew them to give them life to put the bubbles in our lives My prayer is that as you read through each day and apply its lessons to your life you will experience the following personal intimacy with the triune God 1 spiritual wholeness healing and renewal and a life overflowing with life giving bubbles 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 12 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Introduction W hen you open a bottle of Champagne the first thing you think of is celebration Images of weddings New Year s Eve gatherings sports championships anniversaries birthday milestones and major business deals may immediately come to mind It is during these rare moments in life where a refreshing bottle of Champagne truly captures the joy and hopefulness of the festive occasion The most obvious feature that makes Champagne distinct or any sparkling wine for that matter is the bubbles The bubbles are what give this wine its vivaciousness its splendor its spirited joyfulness and luster What you may not know is that the bubbles are the result of a second fermentation the Champagne goes through the first fermentation turns the grape juice into wine the second creates the bubbles The second fermentation does not happen naturally it requires a Champagne maker to initiate the process It is the hands of the Champagne maker that make the bubbles possible Without the Champagne maker initiating the xiii 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 13 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

xiv CHAMPAGNE WITHOUT BUBBLES second fermentation you are left with a naturally acidic austere lifeless bone dry flat wine Champagne minus the bubbles is nothing to celebrate Maybe the image of Champagne before the second fermentation describes an area in your life right now Maybe it describes your whole life There is something that is lifeless hopeless acidic in your life Maybe it is your relationship with your spouse your child or your parent Maybe it is your finances or work or a dream you had that is now bone dry Maybe life is currently austere for you Maybe it has been harsh for many years perhaps decades For you there is nothing to celebrate in this area of your life only mourning a sense of despair fruitlessness or defeat Maybe what God showed the prophet Ezekiel in the sixth century BC is an image that describes where you are right now in life The hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley it was full of bones He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley bones that were very dry Ezekiel 37 1 2 The image was a symbol of what the Israelites were experiencing in captivity in Babylon located in modern day Iraq a place far from their home in Jerusalem The Lord told Ezekiel Son of man these bones are the people of Israel They say Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone we are cut off Ezekiel 37 11 That might be you right now Your bones are dried up your hope is gone and you feel cut off from the life you once had or where you want to be in life right now In fact it describes most people at some point in their lives maybe multiple times It is during 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 14 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Introduction xv these moments in life that we all need to go through a second fermentation a spiritual renewal in our lives We need to ask God to initiate the process to make something that is lifeless in our lives into something that bubbles It is the very nature of God to bring renewal to the dead things in our lives God was not showing Ezekiel these dry bones to be spiteful On the contrary God showed Ezekiel these dry bones because He was planning to bring spiritual renewal to His people Israel Nor does God show us our dry bones with the intention to leave us to wallow in our misery Instead God reveals our dry bones because He is planning to do something brand new with them In the same way the Champagne maker causes the second fermentation we can experience the bubbles of a renewed life when we allow God to get involved in our valley full of dry bones 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 15 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 16 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Ezekiel 37 1 14 T he hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley it was full of bones He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley bones that were very dry He asked me Son of man can these bones live I said Sovereign Lord you alone know Then he said to me Prophesy to these bones and say to them Dry bones hear the word of the Lord This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones I will make breath enter you and you will come to life I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin I will put breath in you and you will come to life Then you will know that I am the Lord So I prophesied as I was commanded And as I was prophesying there was a noise a rattling sound and the bones came together bone to bone I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them but there was no breath in them xvii 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 17 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

xviii CHAMPAGNE WITHOUT BUBBLES Then he said to me Prophesy to the breath prophesy son of man and say to it This is what the Sovereign Lord says Come breath from the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them they came to life and stood up on their feet a vast army Then he said to me Son of man these bones are the people of Israel They say Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone we are cut off Therefore prophesy and say to them This is what the Sovereign Lord says My people I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them I will bring you back to the land of Israel Then you my people will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them I will put my Spirit in you and you will live and I will settle you in your own land Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken and I have done it declares the Lord Ezekiel 37 1 14 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 18 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

See I am doing a new thing Now it springs up do you not perceive it 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 20 Isaiah 43 19 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Da y 1 Your First Taste of Champagne A New Start Requires Forgetting the Past T he Sound of Music is one of the most cherished movies of all time 2 Many of us have seen it multiple times as kids and then enjoyed it once again with our own children One of the warmest and light hearted songs So Long Farewell was set during the great ball that Captain von Trapp threw on the eve of his engagement to the Baroness The song was performed exclusively by his children with Maria on the guitar The playful refrain is So long farewell au revoir auf weidersehen Then between the main refrain each child steps out one by one to say something cute to their father and head to bed When it is Liesl s turn the eldest daughter she sings I d like to stay and taste my first champagne And going up to her father Liesl says 1 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 1 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

2 CHAMPAGNE WITHOUT BUBBLES Yes And of course in a playful yet stern voice he responds No to the joy and laughter of all in attendance at the grand gala What a tender and loving moment shared between the father and all his children In a room full of people of friends and strangers alike the focal point was on the father and his children as if they were the only ones in the room But it was not always that way Until Maria showed up the family was broken After the untimely death of his wife the children s mother many years earlier Captain von Trapp had inadvertently become emotionally and physically unavailable to his children in the ensuing years He ran the home with the military precision of a navy ship and delegated the raising of his children to a revolving door of governesses until Maria arrived in her old dress with her luggage in one hand and her guitar in the other It was Maria who brought life song and love back into the family which began deep healing between father and children as well as a future wife and mother respectively In the same way it is God who brings life song and love into our lives when we allow Him to heal our brokenness The hardest step for any of us to take to move on from our brokenness is leaving our past behind The past has a way of gripping our minds and hearts as we ruminate on our memories There will be poor decisions we wish we could undo and wonderful moments we will never be able to reclaim There will also be tragic situations that were out of our control and ability to stop as well as opportunities that somehow eluded us even though they seemed to be in our very grasp These are the dry bones of our past we have alphabetized and stored away neatly in Ezekiel s valley Anticipating a time that His people would experience enormous heartache and brokenness and would be grieving their past God gave these words of instruction 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 2 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

Day 1 Your First Taste of Champagne 3 encouragement and comfort to the nation of Israel through the prophet Isaiah Forget the former things do not dwell on the past See I am doing a new thing Now it springs up do you not perceive it I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland Isaiah 43 18 19 If we spend our days lingering on these former memories and trying to recapture what has been lost we will miss the new thing God is planning to do in our lives We are not to dwell among the winter shadows of decaying tree stumps when God has planted the seeds of a grand forest saplings even now awakening and emerging in the early spring warmth Trying to bring the past back to life is a fruitless endeavor Nurturing the new growth God has brought out of the barren land will on the other hand yield an abundant harvest Take time to grieve the past and release it into your Lord s hands Take your focus away from yesteryears and even last night and the places where you once dwelt Instead look intently at the Lord to comfort and renew your heart and ask for new eyes to see the magnificent way in the wilderness and the abundant streams in the wasteland that He has prepared specifically for you Lord my past cannot be changed or reclaimed but You are the God who makes all things new Search me and bring to my mind every fleeting shadow of my past I am 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 3 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

4 CHAMPAGNE WITHOUT BUBBLES holding on to that I need to release to You Lord I now surrender each and every thing You bring to my mind I trust You have my best in mind and I need not cling to these past things any longer Thank You for making me spiritually free and healthy again Now Lord give me eyes to see the new things You have prepared for me and give me the courage to embrace the new adventures You have in store for me today and all the days You give and set before me Amen Meditation Forget the former things do not dwell on the past See I am doing a new thing Now it springs up do you not perceive it I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland Isaiah 43 18 19 Worship Healing Begins Tenth Avenue North Tips It takes time to heal the past and move into a new chapter of life Resist the temptation to grab ahold of the new thing you believe God is doing in your life by putting all your energies into that new thing immediately Saplings require time to grow into trees So slow down God knows we can easily mask our pain by grabbing the new thing He is doing in our life instead of leaning into Him for comfort I have found it helpful to take long walks through God s creation and talk with God about my heartaches I have also found some of my most meaningful times with God are during long runs 29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 4 26 01 2022 1 22 PM

29001_StorylinePress_Champagne indd 5 26 01 2022 1 22 PM