Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Numbers 21-24
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 4:4
Jesus: It is written in the Hebrew Scriptures, “People need more than bread to live.”
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Yesterday, we talked about the importance of scripture in Jesus’ life. He proved it with His temptation experience in the desert after His baptism. Satan tried to get Him to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger after forty days of fasting, but Jesus answered Satan’s challenge with the words we read today. Those words come from Deuteronomy 8:3 where the rest of the verse says, “what makes you truly alive is not the bread you eat but following every word that comes from the mouth of the Eternal One.”
A lot of people walk around thinking they are alive, but as we see all these movie trailers and TV show advertisements that flood the airways today, I’m reminded of exactly what we really see moving around us. We really do live in a land of Zombies. We live in a world of the walking dead! They act like they are alive on the outside. They wake up in the morning and go to work. They eat and drink and go about the routine of what many call every day life.
Those zombies out there make money, get married, have children and raise more zombies teaching them to grow up just like them. We have created generations of zombies. I bet you didn’t know that zombies reproduce, but they do. Just look around. They’re everywhere. People who think they have life, but they’re really just biological organisms destined for eternal death because they haven’t taken this verse to heart.
You can’t live by the bread or the food you eat. You can’t live by the job you have or the money you make. You can’t live by the socioeconomic status to which you climb or the number of likes on your Facebook page. Satan tried to get Jesus to let His physical hunger pangs become the most important thing to Him at that moment, but Jesus knew that a few moments of physical pain didn’t constitute life or death. Creature comforts aren’t what real life is about.
Life isn’t about satisfying our desires, it’s about satisfying God’s desires. Life isn’t about us, it’s about Him. It’s about doing His will. Life is about thirsting after God and drinking deeply from the fountain of life He shares with us from His word. Life is about doing what God wants, not what we want.
But that goes against everything the zombies around us believe. The world makes them think they are alive and well. The world makes them think life is about all those material things that go away with the last breath we take. The world says life is about money and beauty and stuff. So the zombies run blindly after all those things and when they get them, they find they still don’t have the life they are looking for. There is still no joy, no comfort, no assurances. Just fear of the unknown and questions about what’s next.
But for those who listen to Jesus’ words and believe them, we don’t walk in the way of the zombies. We know what life is about. Life isn’t limited to the few years we spend in these bodies made of clay. There is something more. We feel it deep inside and know from God’s word and the testimony of His spirit in us that there is something after these few years. We know there is an eternity out there and it only begins with the time we spend in these bodies.
How do we find real life? By doing what God says in His word. You say, “but that’s too much. How can we follow all the rules God gives us in scripture. How can we even know what He said. There is so much there.” I’d beg to differ with you, though. Most Bibles are about 1500 pages and most of those pages are not rules, but stories of God’s redemptive love. Have you ever read the tax code? I think the last version is about 20,000 pages. You’re expect to follow that and it’s just one part of our law. Then there are all the other laws and codes and bills and regulations you obey everyday. We don’t seem to have a problem keeping those and they constitute a whole library full of text.
So why do we think it is so hard to keep God’s laws? There really aren’t that many and Jesus sums them all up in two commands. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself. So if we can just keep those two rules in mind and do those two, Jesus says we’ve done all the rest because all the rest are based on those two.
So what will it be as we look toward the beginning of another season of new zombie programs hitting the airways. Are we going to be part of that crowd and go around pretending to live like zombies do but without any real life? Or are we going to follow the words that come out of the mouth of God?
Once again, we get to make the choice. For me, I never did like those zombie shows. I’ll take real life every time.
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