Tag Archives: life

The light that shines through the cosmos (John 8:12), February 18, 2017

Today’s Podcast

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
In the 1950s and 60s, just about every boy I knew thought of being an astronaut at one time or anothers. We were in a space race with the Soviet Union and rushed to land a man on the moon. Everyone around me dreamed of being that person.
Scripture
1. John 8:12
2. Jesus: I am the light that shines through the cosmos; if you walk with Me, you will thrive in the nourishing light that gives life and will not know darkness.
Devotional
1. As one of my electives as an undergraduate I took astronomy. I got interested in astronomy in Junior High during the height of the space race and our race to the moon. Space and the complexity of the universe fascinated me. I think a great many young men of that time dreamed of screaming away on the back of a Saturn rocket and visiting the stars.
  1. Astronomy class tried to take away some of the wonder
  2. Explained universe and just happenstance of gravity wells pulling on matter and causing the reactions in the stars and formation of planets
  3. Left God out of the equation
  4. Never explained how the Big Bang might have occurred in the first place or who created the dense material from which the Big Bang sprang
2. Still awed by the universe
  1. Distances are mind-boggling
  2. 32 billion light years to the farthest known galaxy (eight minutes and twenty seconds for light to reach us from the sun, 5.3 hours to reach Pluto)
  3. Billions of galaxies in the known universe
  4. Each galaxy made of millions or billions of stars
  5. Many of those stars have planets
  6. We are only beginning to discover the real scope of the universe over the last 200 years
3. Think about Jesus 2,000 years ago describing Himself as the light of the cosmos
  1. Pierces through the darkness
  2. Created all the universe in all its vastness
  3. Brings life and sustains it
  4. Set in motion all the rules that lets us exist on this tiny world
4. That Man, the God/Man, invites us to walk with Him
  1. We will thrive in the nourishing light that gives life
  2. We will not know darkness the thing that brings fear to men
  3. All we have to do is believe in Him for forgiveness and walk in His ways
  4. He will be beside us all the way
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

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.

Take up your cross (Luke 9:23-25) October 20, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Proverbs 31

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 9:23-25
Jesus: If any of you want to walk My path, you’re going to have to deny yourself. You’ll have to take up your cross every day and follow Me. If you try to avoid danger and risk, then you’ll lose everything. If you let go of your life and risk all for My sake, then your life will be rescued, healed, made whole and full. Listen, what good does it do you if you gain everything—if the whole world is in your pocket—but then your own life slips through your fingers and is lost to you?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

From the baby boomer generation on, we have continued down a slippery slope of self indulgence. Almost everything we do as a society and as individuals starts with this unconscious question, “What’s in it for me?” We want to know the payback on everything we do. There are even instructions on how to work a room so that you don’t waste time with people who cannot benefit your long term goals. Conversation tips that help you know if they can add to your bottom line and if not, how to move out of the conversation quickly without making them an enemy.

We want to know the best return on our money and how quickly our investments can double or triple so we have plenty for our comfortable retirement. We want to figure out how we can retire at fifty so we can really enjoy our later years without struggling with the maladies of old age while we travel to exotic places and enjoy that retirement nest egg we’ve built for ourselves.

We want everything and we want it now. Oh, and we want all of it at no cost, no sacrifice to us personally or to those closest to us. We want it all. Period. Each generation seems to get a little worse than the one before. No one seems to want to look out for anyone but number one. That’s the way of the world today. But that is counter to what Jesus tells us to do. He says to take up our cross and follow Him. What did He do? He gave up everything for us. Even His life.

The writers of the New Testament letters continue this same theme. Die to self. Crucify your old life. Take up your cross. Let Christ live in you. Be transformed. Let baptism be the demonstration of death to self and life in Christ. There is this radical change that happens when we really give ourselves to Christ. We give up the rights to our will and let Him decide our course. Where most of the English translations use the same word, life, for the Greek words bios and zoe, they are different concepts in the Greek language. Christ gives us new zoe when He comes to abide in us.

Zoe is the reason for living. It is the purpose and direction behind our biological processes. It is the drive that pushes us toward a given goal in these seventy or eighty years we breath air and consume food on this planet. Bios describes that physiological process that we call life. Breathing, blood circulating through our body, the various processes that make this body move and and respond to various external stimuli. But zoe is why it all takes place. It is the purpose for which we live.

Jesus tells us be willing to suffer for the zoe He gives us. Don’t sacrifice your new zoe in Him for some temporal pleasure your bios might feel. Real life, zoe, is found in Him and that life goes on forever. Our physical frame dies, but our life goes on. And when we discipline our physical life, our bios to do what He tells us, to reach the goals He sets for us, we gain real life, zoe, the purpose He designed for us. But the reverse is also true. If we sacrifice the purpose for which God created us for the simple pleasures of this physical frame, we lose the real life, the real purpose and joy God intends for us. And His purpose and joy last for eternity, not just the few years we remain in these bodies of clay.

So what must we do to take up our cross and follow Him? I think if we focus on the second part, we will understand the first part. When we follow Him, we will find the cross we must bear. When we follow His commands, we will discover the world will not like what we do and we will suffer at the hands of those who do not wish the message of God spread to a world in desperate need of hearing it. It’s not hard now days to find crosses, but it is hard to find the path Jeus would have us follow. There are many false prophets that will tell you what you want to hear instead of the truth in God’s word.

Listen to Jesus. Read God’s word. Read for yourself the truth He gives us in the book that has survived every attempt to snuff it out. You’ll know the truth and the world will give you a cross if you follow it’s 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.

Living forever (Luke 7:13-14) October 10, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Numbers 33-36

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 7:13-14
As soon as the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her.
Jesus: Don’t weep.
Then He came to the stretcher, and those carrying it stood still.
Jesus: Young man, listen! Get up!

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Can you imagine what that funeral was like? The town follows a poor grieving widow as she walks behind the bier of her only son. She couldn’t afford professional wailers, but many of them felt sorry for her and accompanied her anyway. She’s on her way out to the cemetery with the somber group and the people she meets on the road bow their heads in respect and grieve with her.

But then Jesus meets the small party of mourners as He comes into town. He doesn’t bow His head like the others on the road. He stops the procession. He lifts her face, looks in her eyes, and tells her, “Don’t cry.”

What a thing for a stranger to tell a grieving widow. You just lost your only son. You just lost your only means of support. You just became totally dependant on the kindness of others for your survival. Don’t cry. Sounds pretty harsh to say those things at a funeral, doesn’t it.

Of course we know the rest of the story. He went to the stretcher, and talked to the young man. Those around Him must have thought He was crazy talking to a dead man. But nonetheless, Jesus said, “Young man! Get up!” And to everyone’s surprise, except Jesus’, the young man sat up and looked around. Got up off the stretcher and went home with his mother.

There are two important points to this story. First, it shows Jesus has power over death. He showed it by raising the young man. Just by telling him to get up off the stretcher on his way to his grave, Jesus shows his spoken word brings life to the lifeless. He conquers death in hopeless situations. This event and a few other stories like it in the gospels showed His disciples before the resurrection He had power to heal even at the point of death. It should have been little surprise when as He told them He would rise from the dead, that He would. He had the power to do it.

Second, death was not part of God’s plan from the beginning. It came as a result of our disobedience. Death entered the world because of Adam’s sin and affected all creation ever since. We all die because death made its entrance and until Jesus returns and the new heaven and earth come into being, death remains a part of the curse of that first sin.

Jesus recognized the flaws created by that first sin in our world. He saw death for what it was a penalty that must be paid for the sins of man, but one that God never wanted us to have to pay. He wanted us to live. He wanted us to enjoy this world and all that is in it. But we corrupted it with our selfish desires and disobedience to Him. We brought death into the world and He is the only one who can remove it. So He showed us in this one event what He wanted for all of us. Life.

So how should we live knowing that God wants life for us and not death? How should we approach every day if we understand that God intended death never to be part of what we experience, yet we face it every day just the same? Is God unjust because death is here even though He didn’t want it to be? Should we blame God for the predicament we’re in having to face death?

Certainly, we can’t blame God for something that is our fault. We brought sin into the picture. It is our self-centeredness that is at the heart of every sin. We want what we want instead of what God wants and that’s the beginning of every sin. So when God tells us what the outcome will be when we don’t make Him first in our life, can we blame Him for the result when we don’t put Him first? I don’t think so. He tells us the rules and even shows great mercy and grace and forgiveness when we ask.

And the question of how should we live? That depends on whether He is Lord of your life. If God is not Lord of your life, death is real and continues. The cessation of this physical life means eternal separation from God and eternal punishment for the sins you’ve committed. Real death begins. If He is, death holds no power over you. You have the assurance that the cessation of heartbeats and breath just passes you from this physical world into the presence of God, but life goes on. It is in a different place, a different body, a different environment that we cannot yet understand, but life continues with God eternally. We cannot understand or imagine what it will be like. But life continues.

Jesus knew what the Father intended and showed us by raising the young man to life again. His hope is that all of us will choose life, which means choosing Him as Lord. It’s the best way to live both now and forever.

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.

Do you want to be a zombie? (Luke 4:4) September 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Numbers 21-24

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 4:4
Jesus: It is written in the Hebrew Scriptures, “People need more than bread to live.”

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Yesterday, we talked about the importance of scripture in Jesus’ life. He proved it with His temptation experience in the desert after His baptism. Satan tried to get Him to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger after forty days of fasting, but Jesus answered Satan’s challenge with the words we read today. Those words come from Deuteronomy 8:3 where the rest of the verse says, “what makes you truly alive is not the bread you eat but following every word that comes from the mouth of the Eternal One.”

A lot of people walk around thinking they are alive, but as we see all these movie trailers and TV show advertisements that flood the airways today, I’m reminded of exactly what we really see moving around us. We really do live in a land of Zombies. We live in a world of the walking dead! They act like they are alive on the outside. They wake up in the morning and go to work. They eat and drink and go about the routine of what many call every day life.

Those zombies out there make money, get married, have children and raise more zombies teaching them to grow up just like them. We have created generations of zombies. I bet you didn’t know that zombies reproduce, but they do. Just look around. They’re everywhere. People who think they have life, but they’re really just biological organisms destined for eternal death because they haven’t taken this verse to heart.

You can’t live by the bread or the food you eat. You can’t live by the job you have or the money you make. You can’t live by the socioeconomic status to which you climb or the number of likes on your Facebook page. Satan tried to get Jesus to let His physical hunger pangs become the most important thing to Him at that moment, but Jesus knew that a few moments of physical pain didn’t constitute life or death. Creature comforts aren’t what real life is about.

Life isn’t about satisfying our desires, it’s about satisfying God’s desires. Life isn’t about us, it’s about Him. It’s about doing His will. Life is about thirsting after God and drinking deeply from the fountain of life He shares with us from His word. Life is about doing what God wants, not what we want.

But that goes against everything the zombies around us believe. The world makes them think they are alive and well. The world makes them think life is about all those material things that go away with the last breath we take. The world says life is about money and beauty and stuff. So the zombies run blindly after all those things and when they get them, they find they still don’t have the life they are looking for. There is still no joy, no comfort, no assurances. Just fear of the unknown and questions about what’s next.

But for those who listen to Jesus’ words and believe them, we don’t walk in the way of the zombies. We know what life is about. Life isn’t limited to the few years we spend in these bodies made of clay. There is something more. We feel it deep inside and know from God’s word and the testimony of His spirit in us that there is something after these few years. We know there is an eternity out there and it only begins with the time we spend in these bodies.

How do we find real life? By doing what God says in His word. You say, “but that’s too much. How can we follow all the rules God gives us in scripture. How can we even know what He said. There is so much there.” I’d beg to differ with you, though. Most Bibles are about 1500 pages and most of those pages are not rules, but stories of God’s redemptive love. Have you ever read the tax code? I think the last version is about 20,000 pages. You’re expect to follow that and it’s just one part of our law. Then there are all the other laws and codes and bills and regulations you obey everyday. We don’t seem to have a problem keeping those and they constitute a whole library full of text.

So why do we think it is so hard to keep God’s laws? There really aren’t that many and Jesus sums them all up in two commands. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself. So if we can just keep those two rules in mind and do those two, Jesus says we’ve done all the rest because all the rest are based on those two.

So what will it be as we look toward the beginning of another season of new zombie programs hitting the airways. Are we going to be part of that crowd and go around pretending to live like zombies do but without any real life? Or are we going to follow the words that come out of the mouth of God?

Once again, we get to make the choice. For me, I never did like those zombie shows. I’ll take real life every time.

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 is life worth? (Mark 8:34-9:1) August 10, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 93-95

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

Today’s Devotional

Mark 8:34-9:1
Jesus: If any one of you wants to follow Me, you will have to give yourself up to God’s plan, take up your cross, and do as I do. For any one of you who wants to be rescued will lose your life, but any one of you who loses your life for My sake and for the sake of this good news will be liberated. Really, what profit is there for you to gain the whole world and lose yourself in the process? What can you give in exchange for your life? If you are ashamed of Me and of what I came to teach to this adulterous and sinful generation, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when He comes in the glory of His Father along with the holy messengers at the final judgment.
Truly, some of you who are here now will not experience death before you see the kingdom of God coming in glory and power.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I did another one of those quick Google searches today after reading these words of Jesus. His question about what can you give in exchange for your life made me think about the number of suicides that take place in our country every day. So I looked up the number. The websites admit that the number is probably not completely accurate. Some of those that commit suicide are probably not captured in the statistics represented in figures we get in the category called suicide given to us by those who perform autopsies and report those things to the authorities across the country.

You might wonder why someone wouldn’t report correctly, but there are a lot of reasons. If a person runs their car into a tree, is it an accident or suicide? The coroner doesn’t know and will more than likely call it an accident. If someone takes the wrong combination of prescription medications and dies in their sleep, is it an accident or suicide? The coroner often doesn’t know and will more than likely call it an accident. Often only the person who commits the act knows the answer and most often, the one writing the cause of death on the death certificate will shy away from calling a death a suicide because of the impact on the family when a death is declared a suicide.

You see, most insurance companies do not pay life insurance and sometimes even related health insurance costs to the beneficiaries if death is a result of suicide, so the family instantly suffers significant financial burdens. The family also suffers the pain, emotional, and psychological stigma that goes along with suicides. “Why didn’t I see it? What could I have done to prevent it? Did I contribute to it? Could I have done anything different over the last days or weeks or months to make him or her feel different about themselves to stop this senseless act? Am I or my children now predisposed to follow in their footsteps? How do I prevent it from happening again in my family?”

What is the number of people who throw their life away in desperation every day? That quick Google search says its about 117 a day in the United States. 117 decide there is nothing else to live for and the only way out is to just stop living. They love themselves little enough and feel others love them little enough that taking their own life is the best way to solve their problem. What a tragedy.

Jesus talks about the value of life. What can we give in exchange for our life? He, the creator of all things, says there is nothing more valuable than life. We could gain the whole world and it would not be worth our life. That’s how valuable one person, one soul, one life is to God. Somewhere along the line in the last several years we quit teaching our children just how valuable life is. Somehow we stopped valuing life as the precious commodity God created.

We can blame that failure on the violent television shows and movies or the violent video games our kids play. We can blame the failure on nature of the comics they read or the books they are exposed to in school and the literature that’s popular. But the truth is the failure comes as a result of what we teach our children and grandchildren in our homes as parents and grandparents. It’s the truths we pass down from generation to generation and instill in them by living those truths in front of them each day that teach them life, every life is worth more than all the wealth in all the world.

How do we fail in that effort? What do you tell your children about terrorists? They are still souls Jesus died for? How do you talk about gang members on the street? Jesus died for them. What do you say when your elementary school-aged child brings home the slang titles of a different race? God created them, too. Each person on earth is created by God. He died on a cross for their sins just as He died on the cross for yours and He died on the cross for mine.

Until we recognize the value of every life and begin to teach our children and their children the value of every life, we will continue to see society throw lives away. It might be by suicides or murders or abuse of children and the elderly or negligence of a race or socioeconomic group, but we will throw some group of people away as unimportant. But Jesus thinks every life is so important and so valuable that He gave His own life to redeem each one. What is each life worth to Him? Everything including His own.

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.

Passover happens again (Matthew 26:2) June 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Proverbs 4

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 26:2
Jesus: The feast of Passover begins in two days. That is when the Son of Man is handed over to be crucified.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

What incredible timing. We celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus and sometimes don’t think about the connection with Passover as much as we should. As Christians, we sometimes throw out the Jewish holy days without much thought unless they happen to fall on the same days as our Christian holy days. Passover is the day, though! Certainly, without Easter, Passover wouldn’t mean as much to us because Easter demonstrates that Jesus’ sacrifice works, but Passover was the sacrifice!

On that day, while the chief priest and several of his henchmen were consorting with Pilate, something they should not have been doing on this of all days, the rest of the priests were really busy. This day was Passover. What did that mean? Every family was busy getting their young, unblemished lamb blessed and prepared for sacrifice. The temple roared with the pilgrims from all over the world who came to this place to share with friends and family to celebrate the day God freed Israel from slavery from Egypt and made them a nation.

Passover for them was more important than Independence Day for us. We gained our independence from Great Britain and celebrate it as the day we became a free nation, but that’s not quite the same as Passover. The day the Jews celebrate, not only created a new nation, but demonstrated God’s sovereignty over His people and the world by killing the first born of every household across the land unless they were protected by blood smeared on the doorpost of the house. That sign caused the death angels to pass over the house and spare the first born from execution at the hand of God.

Thousands of sheep died on the day Jesus died. Thousands of Jews gathered in homes around their tables clothed in traveling garb with shoes on their feet and shared the story of God’s salvation of His chosen people, rescuing them from the hands of Pharoah. Thousands listened to the message of God’s redemption and the promise of His coming Messiah, blind to the fact that on a hillside just outside the city of Jerusalem the Romans at the bequest of their priests were crucifying the Messiah while they roasted their lamb and told their story.

God brought freedom to all who followed Him. Moses served as His spokesman and led them out of Egypt. All they need to do was follow and obey God’s commands. They didn’t and all the adults who left Egypt died in the desert except Joshua and Caleb. Through the centuries, God continued to send prophets to the Jews to tell them, “All you need to do is follow My commands and you will be free.” They didn’t and God drove them into exile.

He allowed a remnant to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and the city. The nation began to rebuild, but under the overloard of other nations more powerful than they were militarily. God continued to tell them, “All you need to do is follow My commands and you will be free.” They didn’t. God sent His Son, the Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords to free us, to redeem us from the penalty of our sins. And again God said, “All you need to do is follow My commands and you will be free.” They didn’t and instead hung His Son on a cross.

God knew all along the sacrifice would be made. And He knew it would be on Passover. The perfect sacrifice on the perfect day in the perfect place. Jesus, the sinless one, sacrificed in Jerusalem, the city of God, on Passover, the day that represented freedom, the breaking of the chains of slavery.

But there is more. Remember the other side of Passover? Remember what happened to those who did not observe the warning? Death struck every household. The sacrifice required the blood of an innocent lamb. But without the blood of the lamb, the death of the first born was the payment for God’s wrath. So blood was shed in every house. Every family saw death. The issue was whether the death was that of a lamb, a substitute, or the first born in the family.

The same is still true today. The penalty for our sins is still death. That’s what we deserve. We earned the death sentence in our disobedience to God. Every single one of us have that paycheck due us. Death stands at the door. But we have an opportunity to apply Jesus’ sacrificial blood on the door of our heart and live. His blood covers our sins and death passes over us instead of visiting us with its eternal damnation.

But the blood must be applied and that is something we must do. Like the Israelites who brushed the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their homes, we must accept Jesus as Lord, the power of His saving grace, the sacrifice He made to pay the penalty for our sins. His blood, shed for us, applied to our hearts gives us life instead of death, freedom instead of slavery. Passover happened again the day Jesus died. It happens again every time someone in faith accepts Him as 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.

Death was never meant to happen (Matthew9:24) February 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Isaiah 40-44

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 9:24
Jesus (to the crowd): Go away, and do your ministering somewhere else. This girl is not dead. She is merely asleep.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Everyone knew the girl was dead except Jesus. How could He not know that eyes closed, no movement, total paralysis of every muscle, total lack of response meant no life? How could He not understand that when no heartbeat and no breath existed, no life existed either? The girl was dead. Plain and simple. Was this guy crazy? The mourners were already gathered and playing their funeral dirge. The professionals already made their declaration. The girl was dead! How could He say she was merely asleep? He was nuts!

Everyone knows the difference between life and death. Or do they? Do those who belong to Christ see things the way He does? How does He see life and death? What’s different about how Jesus saw the girl and how those mourners saw her?

We have to go back to the beginning to understand what Jesus saw. God never intended death to enter the world. He brought life here. He created every living thing. He breathed into us so we became living spirits. He gave us a part that He didn’t give other created beings. He gave us immortality when He made us in His image. He intended for us to live with Him forever. It was Adam and Eve who brought the curse of death on humankind. When they disobeyed God’s command, He let the consequences of their disobedience fall on them and on their descendants who could not help but follow in their footsteps. Death entered the world.

But Jesus saw past the curse of Adam and saw God’s intent. He saw death held no power over God, but only over sinful man. I don’t know the age of the official’s daughter, but I expect she still lived in an age of innocence. I expect He saw her heart and her innocence and saw sins curse had not yet reached out to defeat her. She slept in the arms of the Father. Safe. Innocent. Not yet poluted by sinful choices. Jesus saw life hereafter for her.

So for Jesus, He saw only life. Life in her physical frame and life in her spiritual frame. He saw only life, not death. He saw her untainted by the evil of the world at that point in her life and it didn’t matter which realm she sat in at the moment. She had life. Real life. It was just a simple matter of starting her heart again. Putting breath back into her lungs. Healing whatever malady plagued her. Those were simple for the Jesus. He created all things at the beginning. He knew how to do those things. What those around Him didn’t know, He could also move her spirit back and forth from the one realm to another.

No one could do such a thing. No one, that is, except God. God intended for all of us to live forever. God intended everyone to stick around and worship Him. In His grace, He cursed the human physical frame with frailty and disease so we would not live in these broken bodies in this broken world forever. He makes a better place to live with Him forever. A place free from the constraints of this physical frame and encased in a new body, a spiritual body, Paul calls it.

Jesus just moved her from one body to another, from her spiritual form to back to her physical form. We hear stories life that in near death or life after death experiences during surgeries, at car crashes, from victims of traumatic events or other phenomena that bring them past the point of clinical death. Eyes closed, total paralysis, heartbeat stops, breath stops, brain waves cease. Dead. Yet somehow, they come back to this physical world and relate what they’ve seen and experienced.

Jesus gives us a glimpse of what God must see as He looks at those who follow Him. And those who follow Him get a glimpse of what it’s like to give everything up for Him. “Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?” They are gone, because we know that death doesn’t exist. We just step from one world to another. We go from this broken down, decrepid old body, to a new body. A body with no pain, no illness, no sadness, no disappointment, nothing but life, joy, peace.

Those around Him stood amazed at the happenings that day. For Jesus it was nothing. God brings life. From the very beginning until the very end of time, God brings life. The consequence of our disobedience results in death. All it takes to stay on the side of the living is listening to His voice and doing what He asks, following Him. I think I prefer to stay on the side of the living. How about you?

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 road? (Matthew 7:13-14) February 2, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Joshua 21-25

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 7:13-14
Jesus: There are two paths before you; you may take only one path. One doorway is narrow. And one door is wide. Go through the narrow door. For the wide door leads to a wide path, and the wide path is broad; the wide, broad path is easy, and the wide, broad, easy path has many, many people on it; but the wide, broad, easy, crowded path leads to death. Now then that narrow door leads to a narrow road that in turn leads to life. It is hard to find that road. Not many people manage it.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

It’s easy to go along with the crowd. Just ask the herd of cattle on the farm. They move from the barn in the morning to the pasture and just graze around following the lead cow. In the afternoon, the lead cow knows it’s about time to go back to the barn so they follow the same worn path back to the barn until the next morning. The same routine goes on day after day, with the cows going out into the field and coming back in again until one day the lead cow leads the herd through a series of gates that ends up with the cows looking through the sideboards of a transport headed to the slaughter house.

We’re not much different. We have a tendency to just follow the leader, not thinking much about who we’re following. We get into the middle of the crowd and let it push us along mindlessly going back and forth day after day until finally we find out one day we’re looking through the sideboards of life on our way to the slaughter house and it seems there’s no way out.

My wife and I enjoy seeing Broadway plays off Broadway as they tour our community. When we first started going to the theater in our town we discovered a quick way out of the theater through an exit by the stage. Only a few people knew about that exit and it only took swimming upstream a few rows for us to break through the mass of people trying to go out the way they came in to get to that exit and beat the crowd to the parking lots.

Getting through those first few obstacles is hard. People are thinking you’re crazy. You’re going the wrong way. Everyone else is moving to the back of the room and we’re moving to the front. People jostle us. We squeeze through the cracks in the crowd. We take some verbal abuse at times. But our mind is set. We’re going for that smaller door that few people know about. Freedom from the crowd. Freedom from the meandering push. Freedom to break out and get loose.

The other interesting thing that has happened is that over the several years we have attended those plays, some of those who routinely sit around us started to notice our escape route. They started following us through that sea of people and discovered they, too, got to their cars faster and escaped the downtown traffic faster. We brought along some people through that narrow path to freedom.

I think about Jesus’ metaphor sometimes as I still bump into the newbies that don’t know about the door by the stage. They don’t know they can escape the mass of people they are following and break free to the fresh air outside if they’ll just break away from the crowd and follow the narrow path to the side door. Maybe they’ll stick around long enough to learn. Maybe I should tell them.

But more important than that secret door at the theater, I want to make sure I find and follow that narrow path that Jesus talks about. The world will take me and you down a path that’s easy to follow. Just sit and watch television and the world will tell you what you need, money, sex, fame. The world will make you believe that what you want is more important than anything else. But the world lies. What’s most important is what God wants. His will is most important and it will be accomplished. His plans will be carried out, the question is whether or not you and I will let ourselves be part of them.

We can run through life like the herd headed to the slaughter house or the crowd pushing to the back of the theater, or we can listen to Christ and follow Him. We can take the narrow road and bring some along with us. We can help others figure out the broad path leads to their own destruction, pull them aside and point out the narrow path that Jesus shows us. We can help them experience real freedom.

So which path are you on? Are you part of the herd or do you think for yourself? Are you following Jesus on the narrow path that leads to life or on the broad road that leads to destruction? You get to choose the path you take. One is easy and one is hard. Don’t take the easy road. It doesn’t turn out so well in the end. Swim uphill against the crowd. You’ll be glad you did.

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.

There is hope! (Job 17), October 26, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Job 17

Set – Job 17; Acts 26

Go! – Job 16-17; Acts 24-26

Job 17
Job: ¹ My spirit has collapsed; my days have been blotted out;
the grave is prepared for me.
² There are mockers all around me;
my eyes are fixed on their unwarranted opposition of me.
³ Show me a sign! Vouch for me, God!
Who is there to give me his hand, guaranteeing his pledge?
⁴ I think no one is there because You have closed up their minds,
made them unable to see or understand;
so You will honor none of them.
⁵ You have heard, “Whoever denounces his friends for land
will watch his children go blind.”
⁶ But God has turned me into a swear word for everyone;
I have become a symbol of human darkness;
I am the face on whom one spits.
⁷ All my afflictions cloud my vision;
the members of my body are wasting away;
I am a mere shadow of what it once was.
⁸ Those of moral fiber are appalled at this;
innocent men grow indignant at the wicked.
⁹ Even still, the righteous embrace their way of life;
those with clean hands go from strong to stronger.
¹⁰ By contrast, I look to you, my friends, and I say,
“Come ahead, all of you; try your words once more.”
I still won’t expect to find a wise man among you.
¹¹ Even now my days have passed me by;
My plans lie broken at my feet;
the secret wishes of my heart grow cold.
¹² And yet my friends say, this loss of hope is for good,
turning my dark night into what appears to them as day.
In the pitch darkness, these broken plans and secret wishes speak to me.
They say, “There is light nearby.”
¹³ If I hope only to live in the land of the dead,
if I prepare for myself a bed in the darkness,
¹⁴ If I speak to my burial pit, calling it “Father,”
and to the worms in the earth, calling them “Mother” and “Sister,”
¹⁵ Then where will I find my hope?
And who will see it?
¹⁶ Will hope go with me to the place of death?
Will hope accompany me into the ground?

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Have you noticed Job no longer blames Me for his troubles. He doesn’t know why he struggles in agony and suffers each day the loss of his children, his home, and his worldly goods. He doesn’t know why all his friends have turned against him and assume he has done evil to deserve God’s punishment. Job doesn’t understand the trials he endures at the moment, but recognizes that it isn’t punishment from Me.

Job is in deep despair, though. He has come to the end of his rope and wishes only to be rid of all the suffering. Job wants hope that there is something besides the suffering he has endured for so long.

The good news for you is I have lifted the veil that covers death’s door with My resurrection. You have seen beyond the pale of death because you know that I rose from the dead and so there is also hope in your resurrection. Because I am prepaing a place for you on this side of the great divide, you have hope beyond the grave. You no longer need to live with the despair Job and his friends suffered in their day.

Job heard of the grave and his generation heard some rudimentary teachings about life after death, but I gave you proof when I burst forth from the tomb on that first Easter morning. I promised I would come back to bring you to live with Me. I told you I would build a room for you in My house and there is plenty of room for everyone who believes in Me. You don’t need to feel hopeless. You don’t need to think this is the end. You don’t need to assume this is all there is. There is hope because I have already overcome all the suffering and sorrow and pain that accompanied Me to the cross. Now you can now your next destination and know the short suffering in this life will come to an end when you give your life to Me.

You don’t need to be in despair as Job was. You can have hope and you can know hope today by giving your life to Me. Do it. You won’t be sorry.

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.

Father and Son radiate life (John 5:16-47), August 3, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – John 5:16-47

Set – Nahum 2; John 5

Go! – Nahum 1-3; John 5

John 5:16-47
¹⁶ So they began pursuing and attacking Jesus because He performed these miracles on the Sabbath.
Jesus (to His attackers): ¹⁷ My Father is at work. So I, too, am working.
¹⁸ He was justifying the importance of His work on the Sabbath, claiming God as His Father in ways that suggested He was equal to God. These pious religious leaders sought an opportunity to kill Jesus, and these words fueled their hatred.
Jesus: ¹⁹ The truth is that the Son does nothing on His own; all these actions are led by the Father. The Son watches the Father closely and then mimics the work of the Father. ²⁰ The Father loves the Son, so He does not hide His actions. Instead, He shows Him everything, and the things not yet revealed by the Father will dumbfound you. ²¹ The Father can give life to those who are dead; in the same way, the Son can give the gift of life to those He chooses.
²² The Father does not exert His power to judge anyone. Instead, He has given the authority as Judge to the Son. ²³ So all of creation will honor and worship the Son as they do the Father. If you do not honor the Son, then you dishonor the Father who sent Him.
²⁴ I tell you the truth: eternal life belongs to those who hear My voice and believe in the One who sent Me. These people have no reason to fear judgment because they have already left death and entered life.
²⁵ I tell you the truth: a new day is imminent—in fact, it has arrived—when the voice of the Son of God will penetrate death’s domain, and everyone who hears will live. ^26-27 You see, the Father radiates with life; and He also animates the Son of God with the same life-giving beauty and power to exercise judgment over all of creation. Indeed, the Son of God is also the Son of Man. ²⁸ If this sounds amazing to you, what is even more amazing is that when the time comes, those buried long ago will hear His voice through all the rocks, sod, and soil ²⁹ and step out of decay into resurrection. When this hour arrives, those who did good will be resurrected to life, and those who did evil will be resurrected to judgment.
³⁰ I have not ever acted, and will not in the future act, on My own. I listen to the directions of the One who sent Me and act on these divine instructions. For this reason, My judgment is always fair and never self-serving. I’m committed to pursuing God’s agenda and not My own.
³¹ If I stand as the lone witness to My true identity, then I can be dismissed as a liar. ³² But if you listen, you will hear another testify about Me, and I know what He says about Me is genuine and true. ³³ You sent messengers to John, and he told the truth to everyone who would listen. ³⁴ Still his message about Me originated in heaven, not in mortal man. I am telling you these things for one reason—so that you might be rescued. ³⁵ The voice of John the Baptist, the wandering prophet, is like a light in the darkness; and for a time, you took great joy and pleasure in the light he offered.
³⁶ There’s another witness standing in My corner who is greater than John or any other man. The mission that brings Me here, and the things I am called to do, demonstrate the authenticity of My calling which comes directly from the Father. ³⁷ In the act of sending Me, the Father has endorsed Me. None of you really knows the Father. You have never heard His voice or seen His profile. ³⁸ His word does not abide in you because you do not believe in the One sent by the Father.
³⁹ Here you are scouring through the Scriptures, hoping that you will find eternal life among a pile of scrolls. What you don’t seem to understand is that the Scriptures point to Me. ⁴⁰ Here I am with you, and still you reject the truth contained in the law and prophets by refusing to come to Me so that you can have life.
⁴¹ This kind of glory does not come from mortal men. 42 And I see that you do not possess the love of God. ⁴³I have pursued you, coming here in My Father’s name, and you have turned Me away. If someone else were to approach you with a different set of credentials, you would welcome him. ⁴⁴ That’s why it is hard to see how true faith is even possible for you: you are consumed by the approval of other men, longing to look good in their eyes; and yet you disregard the approval of the one true God. ⁴⁵ Don’t worry that I might bring you up on charges before My Father. Moses is your accuser even though you’ve put your hope in him ⁴⁶ because if you believed what Moses had to say, then you would believe in Me because he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But if you ignore Moses and the deeper meaning of his writings, then how will you ever believe what I have to say?

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

My conversation with the religious leaders recorded by John make pretty clear My position and role while I was living with you. I did the work of the Father as part of the Triune godhead while on earth. I shared His message with you both in words and in action so you would believe in Me and My mission.

One important thing to remember about the description recorded by John, the Father radiates life, and so does the Son. I will soon demonstrate the fact by raising others from the dead and after My crucifixion I will rise from the dead Myself. The Father and Son are one radiating life to all who will accept it, and judgment to all who will not. Make the right choice.

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.