Author Archives: Agee

It’s time to open your eyes of faith (Matthew 13:11-17) March 23, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 33-35

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:11-17
Jesus: The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been given to you, but it has not been given to them. Those who have something will be given more—and they will have abundance. Those who have nothing will lose what they have—they will be destitute. I teach in parables so the people may look but not see, listen but not hear or understand. They are fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy:
You will listen, but you will not understand;
you will look, but you will not see.
The people’s hearts have turned to flab;
their ears are clogged;
their eyes are shut.
They will try to see, but they will not see;
they will try to hear, but they will not hear;
they will try to understand, but they will not comprehend.
If they, with their blindness and deafness, so choose, then I will heal them.
Many holy prophets and righteous men and women and people of prayer and doers of good have wanted to see but did not see, and have wanted to hear but did not hear. Your eyes and ears are blessed.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Maybe you’ve asked yourself or God the same question the disciples asked Jesus that day. Why do you speak to the people in parable? Why do spiritual things sometimes seem to be hidden from us? Why does it seem that some of your teachings are so misunderstood today? Why don’t you make yourself known clearly to the world so everyone will know you are God? Why don’t you perform the signs and miracles today in your church so that everyone will know that you are the only way to heaven? Why is all of this clouded in our minds to some extent?

We have a lot of questions as to why God just doesn’t blast us with His voice, signs and wonders in the sky, the kinds of things we read in the Old Testament, to help all the world understand exactly who He is and how we should worship Him. We wonder why God doesn’t make all of this as plain as the nose on your face so everyone can understand it and stop the fighting among religious factions and everyone become Christians immediately.

Although I don’t pretend to understand the enormity of the mind of God, I think there are some answers to those questions that we can explore. First, we need to understand that God doesn’t hide from us. He wants us to find Him and know Him. It is His will that all would come to know His saving grace. He created us to love and worship Him. At the same time, He wants our voluntary love. Love that is coerced isn’t love. There may be an appearance of love, but it isn’t genuine. So He wants us to seek Him. He wants to know that we want a relationship with Him.

Second, God isn’t like Waldo. He doesn’t make it difficult to find Him. But we must exercise faith in Him to find Him. We must recognize He is God. And that is the problem most of us have until we acknowledge just how broken, depraved, and sinful we are. We want our way instead of His. We want to pretend we know what is best for us instead of bowing to our Creator. So until we acknowledge God is God and we are not, we will have difficulty finding Him.

Third, Satan, the father of lies, has been at his business for a long time. He has plagued humanity since he first tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and convinced them that God didn’t mean what He said about the trees in the middle of the garden. Satan is a master at deception and has pulled a veil over our eyes. We can’t see the truth in front of us because we believe the lies he has told us through the years. We let him feed us those lies so consistently that we think they are the truth instead of listening to God’s words.

But if we will open our minds and hearts to God’s word, if we will exercise just a little faith in Him, if we will recognize that He is God and we are not, He will open up His word to us and make Himself known to us. He doesn’t hide. But like the objects in those hidden picture puzzles, once you see the object, you can’t help but see them every time you look at them. So it is with God. Once you exercise just a little faith and recognize who He is, you see Him in all His glory. You recognize the truth of His word. You see the power of His Spirit in the world. You begin to see His handiwork around you. His miracles unfold around you and He is evident everywhere.

God doesn’t hide from us, but we must open our eyes of faith to see Him. God doesn’t make His word obscure, but we must let His Spirit speak to us through His word and trust Him to open His truth to us. God makes plain who He is to those who are ready to listen. But to those who refuse, like the object in the hidden picture puzzles, you’ll have a hard time finding Him. Isn’t it time to open your eyes of faith?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Are you ready to sow some seeds? (Matthew 13:3-9) March 22, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Samuel 6-10

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:3-9
Jesus: Once there was a sower who scattered seeds. One day he walked in a field scattering seeds as he went. Some seeds fell beside a road, and a flock of birds came and ate all those seeds. So the sower scattered seeds in a field, one with shallow soil and strewn with rocks. But the seeds grew quickly amid all the rocks, without rooting themselves in the shallow soil. Their roots got tangled up in all the stones. The sun scorched these seeds, and they died. And so the sower scattered seeds near a path, this one covered with thorny vines. The seeds fared no better there—the thorns choked them, and they died. And so finally the sower scattered his seeds in a patch of good earth. At home in the good earth, the seeds grew and grew. Eventually the seeds bore fruit, and the fruit grew ripe and was harvested. The harvest was immense—30, 60, 100 times what was sown.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I guess the first question we should ask today is whether we want to talk about the sower, the seed, or the ground. If we talk about the sower in Jesus’ parable, maybe we should think about when is the best time and place to sow the seed. Jesus will explain this parable to His disciples later and we will know that the seed represents the gospel, the good news of His message. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. But if we need to think about the time and place for planting seed so that we can expect the best crop, how do we distinguish between the rocks, the vines and thorns, and the good soil? How do we know when and where to share the message to reap the most benefit from it?

The answer is sometimes we don’t, but there are a few things we know about people that give us hints about when we might best share the message of God’s good news. For instance, when someone is angry, they will not listen. When someone is angry, in a fight or flight mood, it’s like arguing with a drunk. They cannot comprehend what you are telling them. Their adrenalin level is so high, nothing will make sense to them and trying to share a message of hope to a person in the middle of an angry outburst is almost impossible. Until their mood softens, they cannot hear the message.

Equally, a person in the middle of some jubilant mood is unlikely to hear the message. It’s interesting to see how Satan blinds us our sinful, depraved, and desperate condition, but when we feel like we are on top of the world because of some good thing that has happened to us, we are not likely to listen to a message of hope that we need a savior. We think we have nothing to lose when in that state of mind. We have nothing to gain when we think we have it all. I think that’s why Jesus talked about the difficulty of the wealthy finding the narrow path that leads to eternal life. Because they think they are self-sufficient in their wealth, they do not listen to the good news of God’s hope for them.

So when can we best reach someone with the message of hope Jesus brings? At those crisis moments of life. Those times at which everything seems to have fallen apart and our world seems to be crashing in around us. We go to the doctor and hear the dreadful news about our or a loved one’s medical condition that will never get better. We discover our life-time security in our job just ended in a layoff as the company downsized. We discover the retirement account we relied out suddenly disappeared as the broker who held our securities went bankrupt. Hope seems gone.

Or we look at our life and discover just how sinful we are in the light of God’s holiness. We hear a message or a song or read a book or scripture that shines God’s light on our life and suddenly we become aware of just how depraved and empty we are without God’s forgiveness and without His Spirit guiding us in our daily activities. We reach the end of our rope and there is still a lot of cliff below us.

Those are the times we will listen to the message of God’s good news. Those are the times we will hang on to the hope He gives and become aware that all is not lost. We will grasp for His hand extended to us in grace and mercy. We will reach for Him to rescue us from the heavy load of despair that tries to crush our spirit. Those are the times we are ripe for the seed of His messengers to share with us the hope all His saints carry with them.

So do you look for people to whom you can share the message? Do you look for those choice spots where seeds planted can multiply 30, 60, 100 fold? Do you recognize those who are at the point of feeling hopeless and reach out to them with God’s message of hope for their lives? From the sower’s perspective, we are missionaries for God. His emissaries to carry His message to a world screaming for some kind of hope. And when we find those individuals ready to receive His message eagerly because they are at the end of their rope, we can and must be ready to share with them the hope we have within us as Peter tells us.

Are you ready to sow some seeds? 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew 12:48-50) March 21, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 44-47

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:48-50
Jesus: Who is My mother? And who are My brothers? (pointing to His disciples) These are My mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of My Father in heaven is My mother and brother and sister.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Psychologists tell us that when you go through traumatic events with someone you become closer to that person or group of people. We see that exemplified in the number of gatherings life Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) groups and within those, you’ll find small groups of men and women who gather to talk about their experiences in particular units and battles. The comradery they find in the telling and reliving those events helps bond them and ease the trauma that comes in the loss of friends in some of those horrifying times.

Some of my own closest friends come from times when I was deployed into combat zones and defending our country from enemies that wished nothing less than the destruction of our way of life and liberty. Some other friends that have drawn close come from assignments in which family was no where near. Back then cell phones didn’t exist and overseas phone calls were just too expensive to use them with any frequency to call home. We had to rely on each other and so those that were once strangers became fast life-time friends.

In the course of life, my travels and assignments and those of my brothers and sisters have carried us to different states and nations so few of us live close to each other. We don’t get to see each other very often. But when we get together, we know each other because we’re family. There is an instant bond. I know their temperments, their likes and dislikes. I know what makes them laugh and what makes them cry. I know my brothers and sisters even though I don’t see them very often. Why? Because we are part of each other. We are family. There is something in us that is the same even though we are all very different from one another.

I read these words of Jesus and I get the same feeling and understanding when I think about my brothers and sisters in Christ. Because of my military career and my corporate travels after my military retirement, I’ve attended a lot of churches. Where a lot of people could count a dozen or so, I could easily count more than a hundred churches I’ve attended through the years. But there is an interesting thing I’ve found in all those churches.

It really didn’t matter what denomination I attended. It didn’t matter what color the majority of the members were. It didn’t matter what language the people spoke as their native tongue. It didn’t matter whether people dressed to the nines on Sunday morning or came in rags. It didn’t matter what kind of music they sang or even if the music was really good or way off key. When I was among a group of believers, I felt at home. There was a connection between us that you knew you were accepted just because you were there among believers.

How does that happen? How is it that we can feel so comfortable in another church and another worship service regardless of the denomination or worship style or country in which we worship? It’s really pretty simple. They are family. Just like my physical brothers and sisters share DNA with me, they are different and similar to me at the same time. So it is with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We share something in common.

We may be different in many ways, but in the most important things we are alike. We share Christ’s Spirit in us. We share His love. We share His grace and mercy. We share His forgiveness in our lives. We have each been adopted into His family and have become children of the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are a part of His kingdom. So we stand on common ground. We believe together in a common understanding of our faith.

If you are part of a Christian faith, there are a few fundamental beliefs that you hold dear, summed up in the words of the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic and apostolic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

On those few statements rest the tenets of the Christian faith. When we join together as brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of our denominational background and baggage, we share this common bond. We have this spiritual DNA that binds us together, His Spirit alive in us that makes us more alike than different. So we can worship together. We can praise together. We can live in harmony together. We can ignore the color of our skin, the style of our music, the order of our service. We can just glory in the presence of God’s Spirit among us and know we are brothers and sisters in the great family of God Almighty.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Let Him in! (Matthew 12:43-45) March 20, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Corinthians 7-8

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:43-45
Jesus: Let Me tell you what will happen to this wicked generation: When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it rattles around through deserts and other dry places looking for a place to rest—but it does not find anywhere to rest. So the spirit says, “I will return to the house I left.” And it returns to find that house unoccupied, tidy, swept, and sparkling clean. Well, then not only does one spirit set up shop in that sparkling house, but it brings seven even more wicked spirits along. And the poor man—the house—is worse off than he was before. This evil generation will suffer a similar fate.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We listen to these words and think how terrible it must be to let evil spirits get hold of you. But of course we would never do that. After all, we live in an enlightened age in which we just don’t think about such things. We don’t believe in evil spirits and the supernatural. We don’t believe spirits can inhabit people and control them. We don’t believe evil spirits have power over people and can poison their minds, do we?

Jesus’ words must have been for a group of people not so enlightened as we are. They must have been for the uneducated and those who still believed in magic and superstition and the supernatural. They must have been for those who believed in the spirit world and a cosmic battle between good and evil. They must have been for those who believe in God and Satan, heaven and hell. Oops, I got a little carried away. I think that dips into our generation.

Don’t we believe in God and Satan? Don’t we believe in heaven and hell? Don’t we believe in good and evil and the spiritual battle that takes place around us unseen by powers and principals and authorities we do not know? Don’t we believe God’s Spirit can inhabit us and help us through life? And if His Spirit can inhabit us, doesn’t it stand to reason that Satan’s spirit, his demons can do the same? God’s word says he goes about the earth like a roaring lion looking for those he can devour. But he doesn’t do it physically at first. He does it spiritually, from the inside out.

Satan comes into a clean house and starts filling it with trash. He loads up our life with filth. Name the vice and he tries to introduce it until our life internally looks like a pig sty. It fills with lies, deceit, lust, corruption of every sort. Then Jesus comes along and we learn of Him. We let Him peek into our heart and we let Him turn the lights on. We see just how corrupt we are and ask Him to clean us up. We ask His forgiveness for the sins we committed and He comes in to do some house cleaning.

He does a good job and our hearts, our house is sparkling clean. But our problem is, we don’t invite Him to stay. We don’t let Him be the Master of the house. We’re glad He cleaned us up, but we don’t let Him take charge. Instead we decide we want to take charge of our life again. We want to decide what is right for our life. We want to decide what will make us happy and we push Him out the door.

Remember the words of Revelation 3:20 that you hear so much in evangelistic campaigns, “I am standing at the door and knocking. If any of you hear My voice and open the door, then I will come in to visit with you and to share a meal at your table, and you will be with Me.” We use it to try to win the lost. But the verse wasn’t written to the outcasts. John wrote this revelation to the churches. Jesus had John pen these seven letters to the seven churches in Asia, remember?

Jesus says if we don’t let Him in, if we don’t let His Spirit come inside, if we leave Him standing outside the door knocking, a pretty dreadful thing can happen. That spirit that He drives out and cleans up. You know, the filth and corruption and evil He took care of when He forgave your sins, it comes back. But it comes back with a vengeance. It comes back bringing seven friends with him. The plight of the sinner who doesn’t let Christ come in and take charge is worse than the sinner who never lets Him clean up his house in the first place it seems. Now that’s a scary thought. I can get seven times worse than before I let Christ forgive me?

He kind of hints at that in these verses, doesn’t He? The solution is to let Him in. Let Jesus live in your life. Let Him be more than a house keeper. Let Him be the Master of your life. That means saying yes to Him always. It means listening to His voice and following His commands. It means letting Him take charge of your life and letting go of your authority. Don’t forget Revelation 3:20. It’s for believers. Let Him in!

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Exercise some faith (Matthew 12:39-42) March 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Mark 3-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:39-42
Jesus: You wicked and promiscuous generation—you are looking for signs, are you? The only sign you will be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, as the Son of Man will spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. One day, the people of Nineveh will rise up in judgment and will condemn your present generation—for the Ninevites turned from sin to God when they heard Jonah preach, and now One far greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will also stand in judgment and condemn this generation—for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom. And today One greater and wiser than Solomon is among you.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Sometimes I hear people say, “It would be easier to believe if Jesus were here.” Or, “If I could just see Him I could believe.” But you know what? That is a real cop out. I’ll tell you why. If anyone should have a hard time believing it was those who saw Him in the flesh. Jesus came at the right time and lived among us. He showed Himself to be God incarnate, the perfect sacrifice for our sins. But He preached a radical message. If you really listen to His words, He said some things that really upset the apple carts of His day.

Jesus came on the heels of a rebellion that Rome just quelled in Judah. The reason they had such a large army there was because these Jews revolted against Rome and tried to govern themselves…again. Another of their number declared he was their Messiah, their deliverer and had come to free them from the oppression of the Roman government. This Messiah and his followers died a horrible death as the Roman soldiers crushed the rebellion and stationed their cohorts across the countryside.

Now Jesus comes. But instead of revolt against Rome, He preaches love and something of a revolt against the religious rules and regulations that the Sanhedrin put in place for decades. He disrupted the religious norm, not the political norm. He came to bring peace to men’s hearts, not war in the nation. Yet Jesus let His followers declare Him to be the long awaited Messiah. He didn’t make the proclamation Himself, but let His works and His words point to the prophecies fulfilled by His coming.

To many of those who lived when Jesus came, He was just another prophet. Just another rebel making a name for Himself. Jesus was just another man doing things around the countryside. Until they stopped and listened to His words and looked back at the scriptures and put together words of the prophets with the actions of Jesus, no one saw in Him the fulfillment of the prophecies that pointed to the long awaited Messiah. Until the scribes, Pharisees, and Saducees could lay aside their hatred and compare their readings with Jesus’ actions, they would not see Him as anyone other than another rebel about to upset the delicate balance they tried to hold between their frail theocracy and the domaneering dictatorship of the Romans.

But what about us? We live on this side of the cross. We have at our fingertips 2,000 years of history. Unless you’ve studied the history of the Jewish people, you probably can’t name the eight or ten rebels who claimed their Messiahship. In fact, you probably can’t name the rebels that grew up to try to overthrow their shackles during the 400 silent years of the Bible. But they are there. Over and over, the nation tried to rebuild itself but failed. They remained under the rule of the Persians, the Greeks, then the Romans. They could not shake their chains.

But we have that history if we care to look. We know Jesus is a history fact. We have the scriptures that tell us who He is and what He did. We have the record of Pentecost. We have over 5,000 pieces of the New Testament that date back to within a hundred years of His birth that tell us the same thing. All those manuscripts lasted through the centuries and each copy is the same. The scribes meticulously copied them to ensure the letters and gospels were handed down from generation to generation. What a miracle!

So we have all of the evidence of who Jesus is. We have the stories. We have the testimonies of the disciples and the early church leaders. We have the faith of those early Christians who even suffered martyrdom for Christ. Would they do that if all of it were not true? Would they suffer the kinds of death they faced if Jesus were a farce? I don’t think so.

So we have 2,000 years of historic facts behind us. The Pharisees Jesus spoke to had only His words at the time and the gossip they heard from the uneducated masses that told them about this man who could perform miracles and must be God. We know. We have the evidence. We have the witnesses. We have God’s words handed down to us. What more do we need to believe Jesus is the Son of God? If you don’t believe Him now, like the Pharisees, you probably wouldn’t believe if He stood in front of you. What do you need to do about it? Exercise a little faith in Him. That’s all. Stop doubting and believe.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What crop do you harvest? (Matthew 12:33-37) March 18, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 62-66

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:33-37
Jesus: Good trees produce good fruits; bad trees produce bad fruits. You can always tell a tree by its fruits. You children of snakes, you who are evil—how could you possibly say anything good? For the mouth simply shapes the heart’s impulses into words. And so the good man (who is filled with goodness) speaks good words, while the evil man (who is filled with evil) speaks evil words. I tell you this: on the day of judgment, people will be called to account for every careless word they have ever said. The righteous will be acquitted by their own words, and you evildoers will be condemned by your own words.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I’m not much of a gardner. Everything I try to grow seems to wither and die. If I had to depend on what I could grow to feed myself and my family, we’d all starve. In fact, some have told me that I can kill artificial plants! So I really don’t care much for the first part of Jesus’ analogy here. I suppose if I lived on a farm or lived in an area where life absolutely depended on living on what you grew yourself, I’d probably learn how to make green things live a lot better than I do now. But for the last fifty years, you just wouldn’t want me to take care of your garden or flowers or yard unless you liked looking at dead things. I’m just really good at killing plants.

But I do understand what Jesus talks about in these words. Especially as He goes on to talk about what comes out of our mouth. I understand that good fruit doesn’t come out of good plants. I can attest to that as I’ve tried my hand at growing tomatoes and cucumbers a couple of times. And you know what? Good tomatoes and cucumbers never grew from the bad plants I managed to grow. My friends and neighbors could have bumper crops, but my scawny little vines would just produce…nothing.

So it is with the words we speak. When we are dried up and rotten inside, we can’t get good words out that will bless and edify others. For us to really help lift others with our words, we need to be right on the inside. That’s what Jesus is telling these blowhard religious leaders. They can’t help the people they are supposed to be leading because they are rotten on the inside. Nothing good can come from them until they clean up their act from the inside out.

When I first started working as a fairly young teenager, my father gave me some good advice. He said, “If you want to get a good report from you boss, make your boss look good. Unless your boss gets good reports, he won’t know what a good report looks like and won’t be able to give you one.” I didn’t think much about that at the time because when you’re a teenager parents don’t know anything. But as I matured, I found my dad’s sage advice to be very true.

Good words come from good people. So from a business perspective, a good report can only come from someone who is also getting a good report. If you work for someone who is getting a bad report, how can he or she give you a good report? After all, if you’re working for him, aren’t you part of the cause for his bad report? Aren’t you part of the reason the work isn’t getting done to his boss’ satisfaction?

How much truer this philosophy runs in the spiritual realm. When evil runs around inside your head and your heart continuously, guess what spills out of your mouth? You can’t help but let it out. You can’t hold back the atrocious vocabular that spews out of you. You can’t help but cut and hurt and defame with the words you use. It’s who you are when you let evil run around in your head and your heart.

But when you let Christ into your life and let Him clean you up from the inside out, your vocabulary changes. You begin to see people in a different light and your speech takes on new characteristics. You begin to bless instead of curse. You begin to praise instead of demean. You begin to extol instead of admonish. Good comes from within you as you share His love to those around you and begin to edify others instead of destroying them with your words.

How will we be judged? Jesus says we will be called to account for our words. I don’t want to be careless in letting words slip that will inadvertantly cause pain or demean or degrade someone else. I don’t want to be guilty of being careless with my tongue, an instrument that James says is so powerful. Sometimes it’s best to just keep my mouth shut rather than let a careless word slip out that might hurt or tarnish the character of another of God’s creation. Perhaps it’s best to let Him sort out who is careless, good, or bad. Perhaps it’s best to just always live by the rule my grandmother lived by for as long as I can remember. “If you can’t say something good about someone, don’t say anything at all.”

People judge us by our words. Do they see you harvesting a crop of love or hate?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Am I still safe? (Matthew 12:31-32) March 17, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 21-22

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:31-32
It is one thing for you to speak ill of the Son of Man. People will be forgiven for every sin they commit and blasphemy they utter. But those who call the work of God the work of Satan utterly remove themselves from God, and those who blaspheme God’s Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

People worry a lot about this saying of Jesus. What does it mean to blaspheme God’s Spirit? What is the unpardonable sin? Have I committed it? Am I beyond God’s grace for what I have done?

Satan tkes these words of Jesus and causes many to bail out. To think they are so far down the path of sin that God can’t forgive them. Satan makes them feel so bad about themselves that they just know God must feel the same way and would never let them into His kingdom. So they give up. They stay at the bottom of the pit and feel utterly hopeless. But that is just another lie of Satan. Remember, Satan is the father of lies. He will do anything he can to keep you from giving yourself to God.

So what is this unpardonable sin about? I think to understand it, we need to understand a little about God and His plan for humankind. God wants us to live with Him forever, but as a holy God, He cannot live in the presence of sin. So to live with Him, our sins must be forgiven. The penalty must be paid. But Paul tells us the wages of sin is death. Jesus, God’s Son, paid that price for us. His death made our forgiveness possible. It is a gift He gives us, but we must accept the gift. We must come to Him in repentance and accept His gift of forgiveness.

Jesus came to live among us for just that purpose. To live and die and rise again to pay the penalty for us, then to demonstrate His power to forgive through His resurrection. He promised when He ascended into heaven He would send His Spirt, the Spirit of God to live not with us, but in us. And He said God’s Spirit would convince and convict us of our sin, guide us to righteousness, and empower us to live the way He wants us to live.

So here’s the issue. When Christ ascended into heaven and God’s Spirit came at Pentecost, His Spirit became the link between us and God. Before Christ’s sacrifice, we had a need for sacrifices in the temple to atone for our sins. But no more. Jesus paid that price as the ultimate sacrifice. His Spirit now convinces and convicts us of our sins. His Spirit leads us back to Him and lets us know we desparately need His forgiveness, His righteousness. His Spirit brings us to the point of asking for the help we need from God.

God’s Spirit in us then empowers us to do the work God has us to do. He keeps us on the narrow path Jesus talked about. He helps us understand God’s word. He gives us the words we need when we tell others about Him. He shares His heart with us and shows us when we get off track. God’s Spirit makes it possible for us to live the life we were created to live.

But if I cut off that link. If I refuse to listen to God’s Spirit. If I continually push His voice into the background until I can no longer hear even the smallest whisper, I run the risk of not hearing His convincing of my sin. I run the risk of not being convicted of my wrong doing. When I cut God off in my life, how can I get back? How can I hear Him and let Him reach me? If I absolutely cut all ties with God’s Spirit, then how will He communicate with me so I understand my condition? If I don’t understand my sinful condition before God, how can I ask for His forgiveness? If I don’t ask Him for forgiveness and accept His righteousness as my own by letting Him be Lord of my life, I don’t live with Him in eternity. And there is only one other option. Not one I want to choose for myself.

Are you in danger of blaspheming the God’s Spirit? My opinion, if you’re worried about it, you are probably being prompted by His Spirit to get right with Him. I’m amazed at God’s patience, but His word also tells us His Spirit will not always be with us. There will come a day when He will quit calling. Don’t let that day come for you. Don’t think you have plenty of time. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow or even today. Again, His word tells us today is the day of salvation. There’s a reason for that. We don’t know what day will be our last. Make the right choice while you have the opportunity. Today is a good day to make Him Lord.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Will you gather or scatter the flock? (Matthew 12/29-30) March 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 30-32

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:29-30
Jesus: Imagine you wanted to break into the house of your neighbor, a strong brawny man, and steal his furniture. First, you’d have to tie up your neighbor, yes? Once he was bound and tied, you could take whatever you wanted. Similarly—he who is not with Me is against Me, and he who is not doing the Father’s work of gathering up the flock may as well be scattering the flock.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

There are a couple of things in Jesus’ words that struck me as I read them again this morning. That word similarly in the middle as He transitions from the metaphor to His explanation of the metaphor. Did you get that similarity? He says if we’re not with Him, we’re like thieves! We’re like a neighbor who cares so little for our community that we would rob the guy that lives next door to us. That’s pretty low, don’t you think? But that’s the description Jesus uses to describe those who are against Him.

How would you like that description applied to you? One who goes into his neighbor’s house, ties up the owner and takes whatever he wants. I don’t think I want to live next to that guy or even in his neighborhood. That’s the kind of place where you put bars on your doors and windows, get high grade security alarms, and put cameras around the house. Maybe even paid guards to circle the property. Or maybe just put that guy in jail and be done with it.

The description of the neighbor in the metaphor before the transition is pretty bad. But let’s look at what comes after the transition. “Similarly,” Jesus says, “he who is not with Me is against Me…” It sounds like we have only two choices once again. We are either on Jesus’ team or not. That’s it. No other options. We are with Him or against Him. That’s it. It’s just that simple. We want to think we can somehow ride the fence and play both sides against the middle, but Jesus says it just doesn’t work that way. We are either with Him or against Him. Those are our two choices.

We probably remember those words, but we often skip the next thing He says. “He who is not doing the Father’s work of gather up the flock may as well be scattering the flock.” Now those are words we just want to ignore. We’d like to pretend they never came out of Jesus’ mouth. Why? Because they indict us when we hear them. Am I gathering the flock? If not, Jesus says I might as well be scattering it. It’s as bad as the thief He talked about earlier.

As I thought about Jesus’ words, they took me back to His earlier expressions about knowing God. I wrote several days ago about what it means to know God. To know someone intimately in the terms often used in His word, it leads to procreation. Now His comments hit us again. Are we bringing people into the fold of God care? Are we creating disciples with Him? Are we letting Him use us as His messengers to share the good news of salvation and hope to world that needs God so desparately?

Jesus says if we’re not, we might as well be scattering His flock. So it’s not just a matter of listening to His great commandment to go and make disciples, but if we fail to do so, we are tearing His church apart, scattering His church’s members. You might not think that way at first. You might think it’s okay to sit on the sidelines and let someone else do the work, but Jesus doesn’t leave us that option. If I’m not (insert your name there) gathering people into His church, making disciples, obeying His command, I’m scattering them.

How does that work, you ask? Jesus gives all of us the same command. If you carry His name, it means you will obey His commands. If He is Lord, you say yes to what He asks. That means I will make disciples. End of conversation. If I fail to go out and make disciples, then I disobey Him. If I continue to tell others I’m a Christian, a follower of Jesus, but fail to gather people into His fold, it means it’s okay to disobey Him. But we know it’s not. God demands our obedience. His tasks are not beyond our capability. He never gives us more than we can do. But He expects us to carry out His directions.

When others see us failing in God’s plan to enlarge His kingdom through the missions He gives us individually, to make disciples out in the world, it tarnishes God’s name. It says God can’t do what He says He can do. It tells others He has limited power and authority. As Christians we know that is not true, but Satan blinds us and convinces us it’s okay not to obey, let someone else gather people into the fold. Let someone else do the discipling.

That’s not our marching order from our Savior. So will you be doing the Father’s work of gathering the flock, or will you scatter the flock by your inactivity? Again, you get to make the choice. Choose the right path! 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Quit talking, start doing (Matthew 12:25-28) March 15, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Samuel 1-5

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:25-28
Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking.
Jesus: That would be like a father splitting his own household down the middle or a king cutting his kingdom in half—the household and the kingdom would fall apart. So, too, if Satan imbued people with the power to drive out demons, Satan’s kingdom would collapse. And you should think about this too: you have friends who drive out demons. If I am working as a tool of Beelzebul, whom are your people working for? When I come to you and drive out demons by the Spirit of your Father in heaven—for the glory of your Father in heaven—you should recognize and rejoice that the kingdom of God has come to you.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Have you ever been guilty of the Pharisees’ crime, trying to give credit to the wrong spiritual side? They tried to give credit to Satan for the work Jesus did. Particularly His work in driving out demons from the possessed. They just couldn’t come to grips with Jesus being the Son of God as many claimed. He kept fulfilling the prophecies they kept reading to the people. But surely, this carpenter’s son from Nazareth could not be the Messiah they looked for. Surely, the Messiah would come from the priestly line and would be born in their capital among the priests. After all, they were the leaders of Israel. Everyone expected their Messiah to come from the proud lineage of Levi.

So the Pharisees disregarded what they saw in front of them and declared Jesus’ miracles must be a product of Satan’s work. But they didn’t use their head and think it through. Just like we too often make rash statements without thinking them through. Jesus’ retort put them in their place, still they plotted to kill Him because He disrupted their system of religious rules. He made them introduce love and mercy and hope into their religious equation, characteristics they were not ready to adopt as the harbingers of justice, not mercy.

So what about you? I’m pretty sure you haven’t told anyone lately that their exorcism is done by means of Satan’s power. We don’t hear much about demon possession in our enlightened society today. But what about other things. Do you call other Christian faiths into question? Do you denounce your brothers and sisters in Christ because they worship in a different way than you? Do you hold Christians in other countries in a lesser light than those in your church or your denomination?

What do you action show that equate to same thing the Pharisees did with Jesus?

You might not even invoke Satan’s name when you degrade someone’s actions, but you denounce them as Christian because they don’t fit your mold, nonetheless. Isn’t that about the same thing? There are only two camps we can belong to after all. We can work for Christ or we can work for self and Satan. That’s it. Those are the only two choices. No others exist, so if we think people do something outside the will of God, then aren’t we saying they do them as part of Satan’s camp?

Jesus will determine if someone is doing things in His name out of selfish motive or for God’s glory, but that is not for us to decide. We cannot look at a person’s heart. So if someone is doing good things in Christ name, like Jesus told His disciples, let God have the glory. God will sort out the selfish from the unselfish, those who want rewards here versus those who only want glory for God. It should be a pretty simple solution for us. Just give God glory when we see someone working miracles in Christ’s name. Period.

I think in these days if we think about Jesus’ words, He would tell us to respect everyone who worships Him. He would tell us to be careful in condemning anyone who did things in His name. It’s His job to judge the good people do. Certainly, we know when bad behavior is taking place and His word tells us to police the members of His church to keep His name and reputation clean, but when His people perform good works in His name, we should be praising Him, not condemning them.

It is amazing how often we see that getting mixed up in our world. We talk about this church or that denomination. We hold this preacher in contempt or gossip about that worship leader. We thing poorly of this televangelist or assume everything that one does is fake. Can we just stop and give God the glory for what we see and let Him sort out the rest? Can we thank Him that someone is bold enough to proclaim His name and do something for Him that others can see?

Maybe we do something really remarkable this week and peek inside ourselves and ask ourselves why we are not boldly proclaiming His name to others. Maybe we can ask ourselves why we need to talk about those who do things whose validity we question and instead ask why we are not doing those things in Jesus’ name. Maybe we can begin to realize Jesus told us we would do more than He did when He went back to His Father. Then, just maybe we can start doing it instead of talking about others. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Which side will you take? (Matthew 12:11-13) March 14, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 40-43

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:11-13
Jesus: Look, imagine that one of you has a sheep that falls into a ditch on the Sabbath—what would you do?
(to the Pharisees) You would dive in and rescue your sheep. Now what is more valuable, a person or a sheep? So what do you think—should I heal this man on the Sabbath? Isn’t it lawful to do good deeds on the Sabbath? (to the man with the shriveled hand) Stretch out your hand.
As the man did so, his hand was completely healed, as good as new.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Do we get mixed up in what is really right and wrong? The Pharisees did. Jesus used this opportunity with their condemnation of His disciples for their gathering a handful of wheat to teach them a lesson about God’s goodness. What is really important? Doing good or setting and keeping stupid rules? Granted, the rules help to keep us in line most of the time, but sometimes, the rules just don’t make sense. That’s what He was trying to tell these holier-than-thou leaders. People are more important than rules. Relationships are more important than rituals.

Jesus caught these busy bodies at their own game. If one of your sheep falls in a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you rescue it? Of course you would. It’s important to you. It provides wool. It will provide meat on your table. Sometimes it becomes almost a pet. You would rescue that poor fallen sheep from the ditch despite the fact that it violates the letter of the law of the Sabbath. You wouldn’t let it lay there and die!

But these religious leaders were so lost in their rules they didn’t see that they forgot the people they were supposed to minister to. They forgot their mission was to share God’s word and His love to the lost in Israel and in the surrounding nations. They just played ‘gotcha’ with their rules whenever they saw someone putting a toe across the line.

It’s interesting that in this Sabbath day miracle, the Pharisees plot to kill Jesus because of His terrible violation of their law, but read carefully and you’ll find that Jesus did nothing to break the Sabbath. He didn’t lift a load. He didn’t walk farther than the law allowed. He went to the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath as He was accustomed. And there Jesus met a man with a shriveled hand.

What does Jesus do? He speaks to the man these words. “Stretch out your hand.” That’s it. Jesus didn’t touch him. He didn’t have any of his disciple touch him. Jesus didn’t bring in any salve or balm or medical instruments. All He did was give the man one simple direction. “Stretch out your hand.” Nothing more. Does that sound like He broke the Sabbath rules? It doesn’t to me. What did Jesus do that was so grievous? The man with the shriveled hand did all the work. He’s the one that stretched out his hand. Jesus just said four words to the man.

The Pharisees from this point on plotted to kill Jesus because of his healing on the Sabbath. Wow! They said He broke their rules. But did He? I’m not so sure. And even so, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. He can do what He wants on that day. He’s the one that put in place. He’s the one that declared it a day of rest, but also the one who told the priests to minister to the rest of the tribes of Israel on that day. They could work without punishment, why not Him?

So what does all this mean for us? A great deal of things are wrong with our society today. We could go down a long list of pet pieves Christians have against different segments that our government ignores or even promotes that we know from God’s word are just not right. We see the degradation and disintegration of families, abortion, unemployment often encouraged by the way our welfare system operates, misuse of basic rights such as separation of church and state resulting in the discrimination of Christians in a world sliding further and further into the clutches of evil.

And we see some who call themselves Christian standing up against these injustices. But the way they do so, is equally wrong. When anti-abortion groups bomb abortion clinics or the homes of workers in those clinics, they are just as guilty of wrong doing as the abortionists? They are just like the Pharisees Jesus condemned that day. Just like those Pharisees, they forgot that people are more important than the rules. That doesn’t make abortion right and we should still stand against it, but not by protesting with equally sinful, illegal, wrongs against others.

Should we protest the disintegration of families? Absolutely! But not in ways that tarnish the name of our Savior. Two wrongs do not make a right. Jesus conquered with love. Jesus didn’t break the law to bring real justice to those who suffered. He didn’t strike out against the leaders in ways that negated the law. Remember, Jesus came to fulfill the law and to teach others what the law means in relation to our interface with God and with others.

Jesus came to leave a legacy of real peace between us, our fellow man, and God. That doesn’t happen by breaking laws. It happens through extending God’s love to everyone we meet. It happens by remembering that every person is someone God created and deserves our respect and attention. It happens when we make people more important than the law and God more important than anything else in our lives.

Which side will you take? The Pharisees’ or Jesus’?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.