Tag Archives: leaders

Try on those new eyes (Luke 13:15-16) November 25, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Malachi

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:15-16
Jesus: You religious leaders are such hypocrites! Every single one of you unties his ox or donkey from its manger every single Sabbath Day, and then you lead it out to get a drink of water, right? Do you care more about your farm animals than you care about this woman, one of Abraham’s daughters, oppressed by Satan for 18 years? Can’t we untie her from her oppression on the Sabbath?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus didn’t have much room for people like the hypocrites He spoke to in today’s scripture. It’s the problem that became very obvious across the country this year in all the political drama on both sides of the aisle. People saying one thing and doing another. People declaring they are one thing but living another. People saying they want all of us to abide by certain laws but then not living up to them themselves.

That became the major emphasis of both major presidential candidate’s campaigns this year, did you notice? Neither laid out a platform of how they would help the country recover from the degradation we have slid into over the last several decades. Neither had a plan to raise the moral and ethical state that has robbed us of our innocence and has caused our children to be sold into slavery to sex and drugs and immoral vices that only which a miracle from God can free them.

Both could only blast the other about how they broke the laws of the country and were themselves a blight on society and lied to the people about each others moral character and inability to lead the country. And probably at least half of all that was said is right. I’m not sure we saw any candidates in the long list of people who spent millions of dollars in campaign ads were morally and ethically worthy of our votes. Our country has really come to that point in its slide toward debachery, self-centeredness, and evil, I’m sorry to say.

All you need to do is look at the number of laws and programs that Congress imposes on us,the citizens of the country, but excludes them, the legislators, to understand how true Jesus words are today. Obamacare doesn’t apply to Congress or many other special interest groups. Many of the tax laws exclude our government representatives. Special traffic laws, parking permits, and housing rules apply to our government leaders for the purpose of their protection, but more often for the purpose of their indulgence if the truth were told. And the list goes on.

But frankly, those things have been around since way before our Constitution was formed, way before Jesus talked about it with those Pharisees, way before the Romans came into power. That hypocrisy has been around since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. Men and women have this selfish side to them that says I want something you have or I have something I don’t want you to have and I’ll do anything necessary to keep you from it. Even kill. And so this evil springs up and we see the difference in the haves and have-nots everywhere.

Socialism thought it could blot it out, but it couldn’t. The Soviet Union was that great social experiment and it lasted a whole 70 years before it collapsed on itself. People say China’s socialist society works, but it doesn’t. It’s really not very socialist. It still operates under the rules of the ancient dynasties more than it does socialism so you have the elites in halls of power and the peasants who feed everyone else.

The same is true in the church, unfortunately. We find those who would impose what they think is God’s will on others but will not follow the same course of action for themselves. They are fast to see the errors that others are making and are quick to declare God’s wrath on all who might disobey those rules laid down for others to follow, but don’t see the hypocrisy in their own actions by failing to show God’s mercy and grace when that’s what He extends to everyone who will come to Him with a repentant heart.

And too often in the church today, we are much like those political candidates. Instead of providing the answers to those who come to us in need of forgiveness for their sins, we only point out the darkness in their heart. We know the answers they seek. We know that Jesus can heal their brokenness and clean up their lives. But instead of providing the solutions to the problems they face, we only point out the ugliness we see. We only point out the past mistakes and dredge up every mistake we can find. We look hard to find the weakness and failure and sin when what we should see in others is what God sees…His image, potential, His creation, a child ready for adoption into His family and His kingdom.

Will we ever learn to see with Jesus’ eyes? We can. All we need to do is give ourselves to Him. Let Him be Master and Savior and Lord. When we do, we see things, and particularly people, in a whole new way. Try on those new eyes and see how different things can look.

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.

I’m glad I live now (Mark 10:33-34) August 23, 2016

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 1 Chronicles 10-14

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

Today’s Devotional

Mark 10:33-34
Jesus (taking the twelve aside): Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and there the Son of Man is going to be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They shall seek His death and deliver Him to the outsiders to carry out that sentence. Then people will mock Him, spit upon Him, whip Him, and kill Him. But on the third day, He will rise again.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We look back to those last days of Jesus with 20/20 hindsight. We sometimes think we would like to have been with Him during that last week to sit at His feet and hear all these teachings come directly from His mouth. We think we would like to have witnessed His triumphal entry into the city, watched Him empty the temple of the money changers, eaten His last supper with Him. We think it would be neat to spend some of those last moments with Him to see the love He poured out on the people of Jerusalem as they ended Hi life and ushered Him toward His sacrifice for us.

But if you put yourself back in that time and think about the words the disciples heard for perhaps the first time, I’m not so sure we would want to be there. Jesus pulls His disciples apart from the crowds that continue to follow Him. He just recently became the intense target of the religious leaders of the day. These men held the power of life and death in their hands. No, they couldn’t carry out a sentence of execution, but they could make life impossible for those who failed to follow their decrees.

As a Jew in a Jewish community, if you were excommunicated from the group, you suddenly found yourself with no livelihood, no means of family support, no entrance into the temple or synagogue. You were cut off physically, emotionally, and spiritually from the community in which you grew up. Those were difficult times for the followers of Jesus.

Yet these men followed Him. They believed what they heard. They embraced His message of God’s love for them. But now Jesus pulls them aside and says He will be turned over to those who had been their teachers and leaders. But it wouldn’t stop there. These people plotted to kill Him. So this man who they followed for three years, who cared for them and taught them, now told them He would die. What kind of leader would do that? What kind of teacher would lead people along and talk about love and God’s goodness, peace, mercy, forgiveness, and then tell those who followed Him that He was about to be killed?

This wasn’t a very good pep talk. This wasn’t what Jesus’ followers wanted to hear. They were headed to Jerusalem for the final showdown with the religious leaders of the day. They wanted this Messiah to deliver them from the oppression they were under. How was He supposed to do that if He was dead? Jesus wasn’t supposed to be talking this way. He was supposed to be talking about victory, triumph, overthrow of the Romans, right?

Would you still follow Him? Would you still go with Him when the story changed from one of love and healing and forgiveness to one of capture and beating and execution? At the hands of those who were the leaders of your faith? Imagine the radical turn of events. Imagine just how difficult these words must have sounded to Jesus’ disciples as He spoke to them that day.

You know when Jesus spoke these words, I expect His last words didn’t even register with His disciples until Mark was recalling the conversation. I expect they were so numbed by His prediction of the abuse He would take from the religious leaders and His impending death, they probably didn’t even hear Him say He would rise again on the third day. I expect it was only later they remembered His words as they just couldn’t believe they were marching toward Jerusalem to His certain death and perhaps their own.

Was this really happening? Could they continue to follow Him? Were they dedicated enough to follow Him to the cross as He said they must do if they were truly His disciples? Did He have to talk so much about death and the cross and giving up your life for Him?

I’m glad we get to hear these words from this side of the cross. I’m glad we can look back over the centuries and remember the promise He made that on the third day He would rise again. I’m glad we can know the outcome of that awful, wonderful, terrible, glorious week. I don’t know for sure if I could have heard those words like the disciples did and followed Him to Jerusalem. But I’m glad they did. I’m glad Mark recorded His teachings for us. I’m glad they stayed true to Him so we can have the story today and know that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and what He said He would do happened. I’m glad He rose again and lives forever so we can live forever, too.

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.

Sheep and shepherds (Ezekiel 34:1-24), September 13, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Ezekiel 34:1-24

Set – Ezekiel 34; Revelation 18

Go! – Ezekiel 33-35; Revelation 18

Ezekiel 34:1-24
1 The word of the Eternal came to me with a message for Israel’s leaders.
Eternal One: 2 Son of man, preach against Israel’s shepherds! Speak directly to the shepherds and tell them this is what the Eternal Lord has to say: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel whose only concern is to protect and nourish themselves! Isn’t a shepherd’s job to look after the sheep? 3 Yet you exploit them in every way. You devour their fat, make soft clothes and blankets out of their wool, and slaughter the best sheep for your table. Meanwhile you don’t take care of the sheep at all. 4 You have not sought to nurse the weak. You have not gone out to tend to the sick. You have not bandaged the injured. You don’t bring back the strays or look for the lost. You have led them with neglect, ruled them with harshness, shepherded them with cruelty! 5 They had no real shepherd, so they have scattered; the entire flock was prey for wild beasts. 6 My sheep drifted aimlessly through all the mountains and up and down every hill. My flock was scattered all over the world, scattered like the stars in the night sky, and not a single shepherd went looking for them.”
7 Now pay attention, shepherds, to My word: 8 As surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, because My sheep are without a shepherd, because they have become prey for all the wild beasts to feed upon, because my shepherds have not gone in search of My sheep but have only looked out for themselves and not watched after and cared for My flock; 9 I encourage you, shepherds, to listen to the word of the Eternal.
10-11 Those self-centered shepherds are My enemies! As far as I am concerned, they are no longer shepherds. They will not help themselves to My sheep any longer. I will recover My flock from those corrupt shepherds. I will snatch My sheep from their mouths! My sheep will no longer provide milk, clothing, or meat to them. I will personally go out searching for My sheep. I will find them wherever they are, and I will look after them. 12 In the same way one shepherd seeks after, cares for, and watches over his scattered flock, so will I be the guardian of My sheep. I will be their Rescuer! No matter where they have scattered, I will go to find them. I will bring them back from the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. 13-14 I will call them out from the nations, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them in the high mountain pastures and meadows of Israel. I will feed them on good pastures; they will graze on the mountain heights of Israel. They will lie down to rest on this good ground, and they will feed on succulent grasses in bountiful pastures on the slopes of Israel’s sanctuary mountains. 15 I Myself will watch over My sheep and feed My flock. Whenever they are tired, I will lead them to rest on the cool mountain grass. 16 When they are lost, I will seek them and bring back every last stray. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. However, I will destroy the fat and powerful. I will feed them a healthy portion of judgment.
17 As for you, My flock, this is what the Eternal Lord has to say: “Watch carefully! I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and male goats.” 18 Are you not satisfied grazing in blooming pastures, feasting off rich mountain lands? Do you have to trample all of the pastures with your feet? Are you not satisfied drinking out of clear mountain streams? Do you have to muddy all of the mountain streams with your feet? 19 Why should the rest of My flock have to graze on trampled pastures and drink from muddied streams because of your careless feet?
20 So this is what the Eternal Lord has to say to them: “Watch carefully! I will personally judge between the fat sheep and the skinny sheep.” 21 Because you fat sheep bully the weak, push them around, and threaten them with your horns until you scatter them to distant mountains, 22 I will step in and save them. I will rescue them, and they will no longer be hunted and hassled. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will designate one shepherd over the entire flock: My faithful servant, David. He will watch over them and care for them. He will be their shepherd. 24 I, the Eternal, will be their God; and My faithful servant, David, will be their prince.
I, the Eternal One, have spoken.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

You can learn much from the metaphor you just heard. The shepherds didn’t do their job and I expelled them. So if you are in a leadership position, remember that I hold you responsible for leading My sheep well. Care for them and nurture them as I command. If you are one of My sheep, remember that you are not privileged and should not take advantage of the blessings I give you. Just because I take care of you doesn’t mean you should trample on others. Remember that I created all humankind. Don’t muddy the water or trample the grass for those that come behind you. Take care to preserve the message of My salvation and share your blessings with those needy around you. Finally, remember there is only one shepherd. Me. I came in the flesh to be your shepherd and care for you. You need look nowhere else to find guidance for your life than to Me. 

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.

The lengths people go to (John 18:19-40), August 16, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – John 18:19-40

Set – Jeremiah 22; John 18

Go! – 2 Kings 24; Jeremiah 22; Psalms 112; John 18

John 18:19-40
Annas (to Jesus): 19 Who are Your disciples, and what do You teach?
Jesus: 20 I have spoken in public where the world can hear, always teaching in the synagogue and in the temple where the Jewish people gather. I have never spoken in secret. 21 So why would you need to interrogate Me? Many have heard Me teach. Why don’t you question them? They know what I have taught.
22 While Jesus offered His response, an officer standing nearby struck Jesus with his hand.
Officer: Is that how You speak to the high priest?
Jesus: 23 If I have spoken incorrectly, why don’t you point out the untruths that I speak? Why do you hit Me if what I have said is correct?
24 Annas sent Jesus to Caiaphas bound as a prisoner. 25 As this was happening, Peter was still warming himself by the fire.
Servants and Officers: You, too, are one of His disciples, aren’t you?
Peter: No, I am not.
26 One of the high priest’s servants who was related to Malchus—the person Peter attacked and cut off his ear—recognized Peter.
High Priest’s Servant: Didn’t I see you in the garden with Him?
27 Peter denied it again, and instantly a rooster crowed.
28 Before the sun had risen, Jesus was taken from Caiaphas to the governor’s palace. The Jewish leaders would not enter the palace because their presence in a Roman office would defile them and cause them to miss the Passover feast. Pilate, the governor, met them outside.
Pilate: 29 What charges do you bring against this man?
Priests and Officials: 30 If He weren’t a lawbreaker, we wouldn’t have brought Him to you.
Pilate: 31 Then judge Him yourselves, by your own law.
Jews: Our authority does not allow us to give Him the death penalty.
32 All these things were a fulfillment of the words Jesus had spoken indicating the way that He would die. 33 So Pilate reentered the governor’s palace and called for Jesus to follow him.
Pilate: Are You the King of the Jews?
Jesus: 34 Are you asking Me because you believe this is true, or have others said this about Me?
Pilate: 35 I’m not a Jew, am I? Your people, including the chief priests, have arrested You and placed You in my custody. What have You done?
Jesus: 36 My kingdom is not recognized in this world. If this were My kingdom, My servants would be fighting for My freedom. But My kingdom is not in this physical realm.
Pilate: 37 So You are a king?
Jesus: You say that I am king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the cosmos: to demonstrate the power of truth. Everyone who seeks truth hears My voice.
Pilate (to Jesus): 38 What is truth?
Pilate left Jesus to go and speak to the Jewish people.
Pilate (to the Jews): I have not found any cause for charges to be brought against this man. 39 Your custom is that I should release a prisoner to you each year in honor of the Passover celebration; shall I release the King of the Jews to you?
Jews: 40 No, not this man! Give us Barabbas!
You should know that Barabbas was a terrorist.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

How blind can you let yourself become to violate the most basic laws of human nature to avoid accepting that I am who I say I am? When I walked alongside you, the chief priests and leaders of the Jewish nation willingly determined to kill Me to keep their rules intact. Nevermind that murder carried a capital offense. Nevermind that everything I did brought good to those I served. Nevermind that the only things I said to those who listen brought truth to them about the Kingdom of Heaven.

The leaders began to plot My death early in My ministry because I disrupted their normal train of thought. They didn’t like a carpenter explaining scriptures in ways that lifted their burdensome rules from humanity and gave them the hope of salvation through faith in Me and My message for them. The leaders thought they saw in My message the demise of their institution and so they wanted My death more than they wanted the truth.

It’s still hard for Me to believe they would abandon their own beliefs to get rid of Me. Of course, I knew it would happen to fulfill scripture, but if anyone would uphold the commandments, you would think the leaders and teachers of those commandments would. But they didn’t. They figured My death meant their freedom. It would have if they believed in Me because My death is the sacrifice, the penalty paid for the sins of the world for all who believe I am God incarnate come to save people from their sins. For those who do not believe, they will remain chained by their sins and guilt.

You choose to believe or not. You choose to try to destroy My message and Me or not. Always your choice. Choose rightly.

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.

Don’t sin by failing to pray for your leaders (1 Samuel 12:13-25), Apr 11, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast


Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – 1 Samuel 12:13-25
Set – 1 Samuel 12; 2 Corinthians 11
Go! – 1 Samuel 11-12; 1 Chronicles 1; 2 Corinthians 11

1 Samuel 12:13-25
13 So now, look: here is the king you chose, the king for whom you asked. The Eternal has indeed set a king to rule over you.

14 If you will revere and serve the Eternal, if you listen to His voice and do not disobey His commands, then you and this king who rules over you will follow the Eternal One, your True God, and all will go well with you.

15 But if you ignore His voice, if you disobey the commands of the Eternal, then His mighty hand of judgment will be raised against you and against your ancestors.

16 Stand ready, for the Eternal One is going to show you a great sight. 17 It is the wheat harvest now, and is this not the time after the early rains? But I will call upon the Eternal to send thunder and rain so you will realize the depths of your sin before God because you demanded a king to rule over you.

18 Samuel prayed to the Eternal. He sent thunder and rain to pelt the fields that day, and the people were afraid of Him and of Samuel.

People (to Samuel): 19 Pray to the Eternal One your God on behalf of your servants so we will not die for adding to all the weight of our sin the evil of demanding our own king.

Samuel: 20 Don’t be frightened. It is true that you have done evil, but never stop following the Eternal One. Serve Him completely, 21 and do not follow empty things that do not have the power to benefit or save you. They are worthless. 22 For the sake of His reputation, He will not cast away His chosen people. Before you ever chose Him, the Eternal One chose you as His own because it pleased Him.

23 As for me, the last thing I would ever do is to stop praying for you. That would be a sin against the Eternal One on my part. I will always try to teach you to live and act in a way that is good and proper in His eyes. 24 Make this your one purpose: to revere Him and serve Him faithfully with complete devotion because He has done great things for you. 25 But if you continue in your evil ways against Him, you and your king will be swept off the face of the earth.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Politics in Samuel’s day was not so different from politics today. One group wanted the judges I chose to stay in power and for the country to remain as a theocracy. Another group wanted left alone and the tribe leaders to manage the activities within the borders of the property inherited within the promised land I gave them. Yet another side cried for a king to unite the tribes as protection against the strength of the neighboring nations.

The voices for those clambering for a king won out. I still chose the first king, but one thing I want you to notice about Samuel and the group of prophets he led. He counted it a sin against Me if he ever failed to pray for the king of his nation. Saul needed his prayers. The people needed him to pray for the king.

Today in your country it’s party politics. You think things are different with your democratic government, but they’re not, really. One group wants their party in power and spends inordinate amounts of money to do so that could be used to really help people. Another group does the same, and yet another group does the same. When all the dust settles after your elections, nothing changes. Solomon said it well in the treatise you call Ecclesiastes. “It’s all vanity.”

One thing is certain, though. Whoever holds the political power in any nation needs the prayers of his or her people. Prayer works. Solomon said it. The chroniclers reiterated it. “When My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face, I will hear from heaven, and heal their land.”

I look at what goes on around you and see the corruption in your politics just as I saw the corruption among the kings who ruled in ancient Israel. I sent My people into exile because of their failure to obey Me. Their leaders led them down paths I never intended them to go – worshiping pagan gods. Making treaties with neighboring nations and adopting their worship rituals and idols. Substituting material riches and opulence for justice and care for the poor, the widows, orphans, and foreigners barely surviving in their cities.

When your leaders begin to care more about keeping their political positions or their party in power than meeting the needs of the people they serve, it’s past time for you to fall on your knees in prayer. Select your leaders carefully. Then pray for whoever holds the authority in the nations of the world. Whether they follow Me or reign as despots, the people they serve are influenced and impacted by their decisions. Samuel and his group of prophets should not be the only ones with the deep cry from their hearts that it would be a sin against Me to fail to pray for his king.

Pray for your leaders, they could use it…every day! 

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.