November 11th, 2025 Devotional

💧 Living Water Devotional – Tuesday

The Towering Pillars of Compassion and Justice

📖 Micah 6:8 • Isaiah 58:6–11 • Luke 4:18–19

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🕊 Scripture Focus

“He has shown you, O man, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.”

— Micah 6:8

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💬 Devotion: The Hole in Our Gospel

There are times when God completely interrupts our comfortable Christianity — not to condemn us, but to awaken us. That’s exactly what happened to Richard Stearns, a man who thought he knew what it meant to follow Jesus.

Before leading one of the largest Christian humanitarian organizations in the world, Rich was living the American dream. He graduated from Cornell University and Wharton Business School, became a successful marketing executive, and eventually the CEO of Lenox, a fine-china company. He and his wife, Reneé, were raising five children, attending church, and giving generously. From the outside, it looked like the picture of a blessed life.

Then in 1998, Rich received a call from World Vision, a global Christian relief organization. They wanted him to consider becoming their next president. He laughed and said, “You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m not a missionary — I’m a CEO.”

But God wasn’t done.

One night at dinner, Reneé looked across the table and said words that would change everything:

“If God is calling us to this, why aren’t we going?”

That question pierced Rich’s heart. He realized he was clinging to comfort while still calling Jesus “Lord.” He wrestled with fear, identity, and the possibility of leaving everything behind — the salary, the security, and the status he had built.

After weeks of struggle, he said yes. He left his prestigious role and entered a new world — a world of poverty, hunger, and brokenness.

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🌍 A Shattered Heart and a Living Gospel

Shortly after joining World Vision, Rich visited Uganda, where AIDS had orphaned entire villages. He met a ten-year-old boy named Richard, who had lost both parents to HIV and was caring for his younger siblings in a crumbling hut.

When Rich asked the boy what he wanted most in life, the boy replied softly,

“I want to learn so I can help other children like me.”

That single sentence shattered him.

In that moment, all the degrees, business awards, and financial success faded into meaninglessness. Rich later wrote in his book The Hole in Our Gospel,

“I realized there was a hole in my own gospel — a hole where compassion and justice should have been. I had believed in Jesus, but I hadn’t followed Him into the pain of the world.”

That moment of surrender led him to spend the next two decades mobilizing the Church to serve the poor, fight injustice, and bring Christ’s hope to forgotten places.

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📖 The Call of Scripture

The message God gave through the prophet Micah still echoes today:

“Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

And in Isaiah 58, God rebuked His people for their empty religion — praying, fasting, and worshiping while ignoring the hungry and oppressed.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen,” says the Lord,

“to loose the chains of injustice …

to share your food with the hungry …

to provide the poor wanderer with shelter …

and when you see the naked, to clothe them?”

True worship isn’t about how loud we sing, but how deeply we love.

It’s not measured by church attendance, but by how we treat the least among us.

When we live this way, Isaiah says:

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear.

The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”

When we act justly and love mercy, the world sees the face of Jesus through us.

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✝️ Jesus Fulfills the Vision

Centuries later, Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth and declared:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

because He has anointed Me

to preach good news to the poor,

to proclaim freedom for the prisoners,

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set the oppressed free.” — Luke 4:18–19

That was His mission statement — and it’s ours too.

We are called not just to believe the gospel, but to become the gospel in our homes, workplaces, and communities. When we feed the hungry, comfort the broken, and stand beside the hurting, heaven touches earth.

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❤️ Reflection Questions

1. What are the “holes” in my gospel — areas where I’ve believed but not obeyed?

2. Who around me is suffering or in need that God wants me to notice and love this week?

3. How can I act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly in my everyday life?

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🙏 Prayer

Lord Jesus,

Forgive me for the times I’ve chosen comfort over compassion.

Open my eyes to see the poor, the broken, and the forgotten the way You do.

Fill me with Your Spirit so that mercy becomes my instinct

and justice becomes my lifestyle.

Let Living Water Vineyard be known not just for what we believe,

but for how we love.

Amen.

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🎵 Worship Song

🎶 “God of Justice” — Tim Hughes

“We must go, live to feed the hungry,

Stand beside the broken, we must go…”

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🌍 Challenge This Week

Ask God to show you one specific place where you can “fill the hole” in your gospel this week.

Feed someone in need. Encourage someone who feels unseen. Give without expecting anything in return.

Because when we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly —

“Our light will break forth like the dawn,

and our healing will quickly appear.” (Isaiah 58:8)