Tag Archives: greatness

Be great by sharing the message (Luke 7:24-28) October 12, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 119

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 7:24-28
Jesus: When you went out into the wilderness to see John, what were you expecting? A reed shaking in the wind? What were you looking for? A man in expensive clothing? Look, if you were looking for fancy clothes and luxurious living, you went to the wrong place—you should have gone to the kings’ courts, not to the wilderness! What were you seeking? A prophet? Ah yes, that’s what John is, and even more than a prophet. The prophet Malachi was talking about John when he wrote,
I will send My messenger before You,
to clear Your path in front of You.
Listen, there is no human being greater than this man, John the Baptist. Yet even the least significant person in the coming kingdom of God is greater than John.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

It’s funny how we get our value systems all turned around in this world, isn’t it? We think big house, fancy cars, clothes and jewelry are the emblems of success. We consider multiple bank accounts, more than one house, long vacations in exotic places, and extravagant spending the things for which to strive in this world. But Jesus points to John in his camel skin cloak, his wild hair and diet of honey and locust and whatever else he can find to eat in the wilderness and says this scraggly looking prophet is the greatest human being on the planet. There is none greater than John the Baptist.

How can that be? He has nothing. He has no home. He has no means of transportation. He has no decent set of clothing. He doesn’t know where his next meal will come from. How can Jesus look at anyone with a straight face and say John is the greatest human being who ever lived? Doesn’t Jesus say that He knows Moses and Elijah and the other great prophets? Doesn’t Jesus talk about David and Solomon and Hezekiah, the great kings of the great nation of Israel? Doesn’t Jesus understand the history of men like these? How can Jesus say this homeless man who says this illegitimate son of a carpenter is the Messiah be the greatest human being who ever lived? Jesus must be crazy!

But Jesus looked into the heart of John and saw what he had done. John fulfilled his purpose perfectly. John took none of the limelight even though he had great opportunity to do so. John began preaching about the coming Messiah and scores of people flocked to hear his message. John had the people’s ear. He could have usurped the Father’s will and made himself out to be the long awaited One. But he didn’t. He stayed on the course God set for him.

That’s where John’s greatness lay. It certainly wasn’t his wealth or his oratory skill or his property or his beauty. The only thing John had going for him was the fact that God chose him for a particular mission and he carried out that mission faithfully. Even when it would have been easy to back peddle just a little and save himself from prison and the executioners axe, John still stayed true to his mission and called God’s chosen people to repent of their sins. He let them know that the kingdom of God had burst in upon the scene and the rules were changing. They had to make up their mind about who they would follow and they had to do it quickly. They must either follow or reject Jesus, but to make the wrong choice meant an eternity separated from the One who could rescue them from the bondage of slavery they felt every day.

Did John fully understand the message He shared with those around him? I’m not sure he did. I stand on this side of the cross’ history. You and I have knowledge John and Jesus’ disciples didn’t have when they received the message John shared. I share the message of repentance and Jesus’ forgiveness often. I try to share it with you in this podcast every day. But do I fully understand the message I share? Not on this side of eternity’s curtain.

There is so much I will not understand about how the triune Godhead works, yet I still believe it is true. I do not understand how Jesus’ blood, shed 2,000 years ago, acts as the payment for the sins I commit today, yet I believe it does when I ask for his forgiveness because I feel the burden of guilt lifted from my heart. I do not understand how God can extend His grace to me when I was His enemy, yet I know He did because I feel His presence in my life every day.

There is so much about the message I will not understand until I can sit as Jesus’ feet and ask Him about it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe His message isn’t true. I know His message is true. I’ve seen His hand at work. I’ve felt His presence in my own life and watched Him work His miracles in the lives of others. I know He is God and forgives sins when we ask. I know He can help us live the lives He purposed us to live when we give Him authority over us. I know He can make us greater than we can ever be without Him.

What made John so great? He shared the message unfaltering to a world who needed to hear it desperately. Can Jesus make you great as well? You bet He can. Just share what He has done for you. That’s the message we are to share with others. He commands us to be His witnesses. So go ahead and start today.

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.

It’s time to remember our past (Matthew 13:52) April 1, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Jeremiah 7-11

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:52
Jesus: Every scribe and teacher of the law who has become a student of the ways of the Kingdom is like the head of the household who brings some new things and some old things, both out of the storeroom.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

If you really want to learn, there are two kinds of teachers you want to avoid, those that have the “we’ve never it done it that way” attitude, and those that chase after every new idea that comes along. Both will lead you down the wrong path.

The first will hold you back and make you think progress is terrible. Only the old ways are God’s ways. There’s a problem with that kind of thinking, though. God gave us a brain to use it. He enabled us to progress. He gave us the intelligence to build cities, make machines, discover the science behind things. If He didn’t want us to discover and use that knowledge, He would have hid it from us. There is nothing wrong with progress.

I doubt if those that only want the “good old days” really do. The good old days mean hot water comes from boiling water over an open fire after you’ve hauled it to your house from the closest creek or river or pond. It means cooking over an open fire because progress means no stoves have been developed. The good old days means oil lamps haven’t even been invented and anything that is done at night is done by fire light. Do you really like the good old days? The good old days mean walking wherever you go because no cars are around, no saddles for horses, no wagons. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

No, God doesn’t intend for us to stay in the stone ages. He wants us to learn and progress. That means even progressing in what we know about Him. We should know more about Him than our ancestors did. Each generation should be able to build on its knowledge of God if we will take what our fathers knew and add to it in our own search and study of His word and infinite wisdom.

Conversely, the teacher who jumps at every new idea and throws out the old is bound for problems. You see, we have progressed to the we are today because of the knowledge of those who have gone before us. If we throw out the principles and understanding of those that made the present possible. When we forget all the principles on which our current successes are founded, we find ourselves standing on a slippery slope. We see it in our nation today.

At one time, we were a Christian nation. Kids could play outside without supervision, without parents’ fearing they would be taken, bullied, introduced to drugs or gangs. Kids left the house after breakfast and came home safe when the street lights came home. Adults looked out after each other’s kids and authority meant something. We didn’t hear about police brutality. Neither did we hear about out of control crime rates, overcrowded jails, rampant evil.

Why was America less insane that it seems to be today? I think in great part because we lived by the principles of our fathers and their fathers before them. Somehow, the last couple of generations have felt it’s okay to forget the past. It’s okay to forget what made us great. The thing that made us great was not our ingenuity or brilliant ideas, it was a combination of the our reliance on the principled life our forefathers lived coupled with those brilliant ideas. It was the importance of keeping the past and reaching out into the future.

Jesus’ message is just as true today as it was when He spoke it 2,000 years ago. When we fail to live by the principles that make us live with respect and admiration for God and each other, the foundation upon which this nation was built, we can never achieve much. We reached for the moon in the early sixties, but what have we done since? We decided we could live by our own rules and in so doing, we have almost destroyed our society today.

It’s about time we go back into the storehouse and pull out some of the old and mix it with some of the new. We’ve forgotten the old things that make the foundation strong and rich and fruitful. Unless the foundation is there, the rest just blows away in the storm. We need to find that foundation again. We don’t need to go back to the “good old days” as some would have us do. But we do need to go find those sacred principles of life, family, godliness, purity, holiness, that God’s word tells us are so important. Those things haven’t changed since the beginning of time. If we think we can stand long without them in this modern era, we are sadly mistaken.

It’s time to remember our past. 

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.