Tag Archives: obedience

The games children play (John 5:22-23), January 28, 2017

Today’s Podcast

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
I love to watch children play games. They seldom care about the rules that come in the box. They just make up the rules as they go along and change them to suit themselves if it looks like new rules will benefit them. We’re a lot like that as adults sometimes, too. Perhaps we should consider Jesus words when we apply those rules to life, though..
Scripture
1. John 5:22-23
2. Jesus: The Father does not exert His power to judge anyone. Instead, He has given the authority as Judge to the Son. 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.
Devotional
1. Children have a tendency to make up their own rules when they play games. Have you ever noticed that?
  1. Board games with grandkids
  2. Discard the rules quickly
  3. Make up rules that will help them win
  4. Change the rules in the middle of the game to suit them
2. We try to do that in life
  1. Rules are given to us by God in His word
  2. We discard them quickly or don’t pay attention to them just like my grandkids with their board games
  3. Try to make up our own rules or change God’s rules to suit us
  4. Creates a problem
3. Imagine baseball or football game where there is no referee or the referee changes the rules at a whim
  1. Create chaos on the field
  2. Rules provide order and direction and guidance in games and life
  3. In sports the referee is the judge for obedience to the rules
  4. In life, we set up courts with judges and juries to determine obedience to our civil laws
4. God gives us some civil laws to live by, but His word is primarily focused on our spiritual well being
  1. Relationship with each other
  2. Relationship with Him
  3. We will be judged based on the spiritual rules He has established and given to us in His word
  4. Jesus, His Son, God in the flesh, has been appointed as our judge
  5. Since He is our judge, it pays to learn and obey His rules
  6. You wouldn’t play college football without reading and understanding the rules, why do we think it’s okay to go through life without doing the same in matters so much more important, things with eternal consequences
5. It’s time we pick up that spiritual manual God has given us. Read it again and again. Get familiar with the things He expects us to do as we journey through this game of life. Then practice those things daily. He is the referee and will be our judge at the end of time. Knowing that, don’t you think it’s time to live by His rules instead of making them up as we go along?
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.

Be a good citizen (Luke 12:58-59) November 22, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ezra 6-10

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 12:58-59
Jesus: Imagine you’re being sued. You and your accuser are on your way to court. Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to settle out of court before you stand before the magistrate? After all, he might drag you to stand before the judge, and the judge might hand you over to the police, and they might throw you in jail. Once you’re in jail, it’s too late: you’re not going anywhere until you’ve paid in full.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Early in my military career, we had a nearly a million soldier on active duty just after Viet Nam and a lot of those soldier were draftees that didn’t want to be in the Army and some were sent there instead of to jail. Consequently, we had correctional barracks on most of the installations to take care of some of the less that stellar troops that committed crimes on the installation. The correctional barracks are long gone from most of the installations now. That’s a good thing. But one of the advantages of having those facilities on the post was that you could arrange a visit every once in a while for a salvageable, but wayward young soldier.

I knew several of the officers who worked in or with the correction barracks facility and when I had a soldier that lost his way, I would ask one of my Military Police friends to give that wayward soldier and inside visit of the barracks. This wasn’t a prison, so the conditions were much better, with more privileges than the military prison system, but a young soldier’s eyes were opened pretty quickly when they suddenly found themselves going through the doors with an MP in handcuffs and standing on the wrong side of that yellow line.

When the iron gate closed behind them and suddenly they found themselves cut off from the world with fencing topped with razor wire and the barracks filled with real criminals, that hour or two that the MP spent taking them through the facility letting them know the rules of how they would live for the next six months or two years or six years, depending on the infractions that were building up, felt like an eternity. I’d watch their eyes grow to the size of saucers. Seldom did those soldiers leave that facility without understanding life would not be the same if they didn’t change their ways.

Most of the soldiers I sent for a visit to the barracks for an hour or two turned around and became good soldiers. They straightened up and understood that the Army had rules for a reason. A couple of them even became Sergeants Major, the highest enlisted rank in the Army. Most thanked me later in their career for giving them the opportunity to visit the barracks instead of taking the formal actions I could have taken to send them there or to prison on a more permanent basis.

Jesus’ words today, reminded me of those times in my early career. Isn’t it better to negotiate with people and fix things than to watch them explode in front of you? Isn’t it better to build relationships rather than tear them apart? Of course, the best action is never to get yourself into a position to be sued or charged in the first place. Obey the law. Do what’s right. Love your neighbor. Pray for those that injure or abuse you. Love your enemy. Those are the things Jesus told us to do.

When we do the right thing, we will seldom find ourselves on the wrong side of the law or sitting in the defendant’s seat in court. We will seldom find ourselves facing a judge for doing things that run against the civil laws of the land. Most people will be surprised at our kindness and love for others, but we will seldom be dragged into court for kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control, those fruit of the spirit that grows in the spirit-filled believer.

What should we be dragged into court for? Going to church and declaring Jesus as Lord. With the state of the world moving in the direction it is moving, it might not be long before that happens. But if it does, if we are dragged before authorities for declaring that Jesus is the Son of the living God. If we face prosecution for declaring that only by believing that Jesus died for our sins can we gain eternal life and forgiveness for our sins. If we face punishment for our faith. Then Jesus says God spirit will put the words we need in our mouth so we do not need to worry about what to say or what to do when we face the judge.

Whatever else someone might call us into court for account we should be careful. Do the right thing. Obey the laws of the land. Be a good citizen while on this journey of life. Build good relationships so that others can know you are a child of God and a citizen of another kingdom. Then proclaim your citizenship and how to get your name on those immigration papers found in the book of life.

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.

Sometimes you just need to stop and listen (Luke 10:41-42) October 30, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – James 4-5

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 10:41-42
Jesus: Oh Martha, Martha, you are so anxious and concerned about a million details, but really, only one thing matters. Mary has chosen that one thing, and I won’t take it away from her.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

It’s easy to get busy doing good things, isn’t it? I remember my days as Chief of Staff at the Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston. My calendar was crazy. It wa filled with meetings and appointments that were good. They were important. They needed to be conducted. But looking back, I’m not sure I really should have let my schedule get as crazy as I did.

I let other people handle my schedule and I ended up with back to back meetings every 30 minutes from 7 in the morning until 6 in the evening five days a week and most evenings and weekends were filled with Army, city, and church activities. I had no time left over in the schedule for three years for much of anything. I had to schedule time with Carole and my kids and there wasn’t near enough of it as I look back at those years.

It wasn’t that I was doing bad things, but it certainly wasn’t the best things. Oh, I had an important position and everyone at Fort Sam Houston knew who I was. I interacted with a lot of important people as I acted as advisor to the city council on matters pertaining to the installation at times, state and federal agencies operating in and around Fort Sam Houston, or interfaced with organizations like the Red Cross, Veterans’ Administration, several of the school districts, the medical community in San Antonio, the Chamber of Commerce, and a host of other agencies and activities. I did a lot of good things with all those appointments and meetings and conferences. As I look back at those things, I think I helped the installation, the school and the medical community progress in its care of both military personnel and the civilian community, particularly in the area of trauma support.

But was it the best use of those hours during those three years? Quite frankly, I don’t know. I was able to share my story a few times both with individuals and in public forums giving credit to God for the successes I enjoyed in my career, but I was called to preach in 1980 and I had very little time left in my calendar to preach or provide the blogs and podcasts I’m doing now, sharing God’s words consistently.

So was what I was doing what Martha doing? Going around attending to all the details at the expense of sitting at the feet of Jesus and soaking in the best He has for me? I admit, sometimes I think I was. I think I let my job and those responsibilities keep me from the call God placed on my life on that I promised to fulfill on that September evening in 1980. I still did things with my church. I still kept up my devotions. I still shared with some about the faith I felt and used to keep everything in perspective. But I let the details block out the goodness of just stopping sometimes and sitting at the feet of the Master.

I’m trying to do better. I’m trying to leave room in my calendar for God to work. I try to remember that everything is secondary to His schedule. Like the Good Samaritan that disrupted his plans and spent at least a day and a night tending to a stranger injured on the road, I want to be ready to give up my schedule to the best God has instead of the good I might have planned.

So what about you? Have you let your life get so cluttered with details that you don’t have time to let God intervene with His schedule? Have you planned every moment and hold on to those moments with such tenacity that God can’t get in no matter how hard He tries? That’s what Martha did and she was scolded when she tried to get Mary to stop listening to Jesus and help her with all those preparations.

Sometimes we just need to remember God cares more about our relationship with Him than He does the glitter and glamor and ritual and preparation we seem to do to get ready to meet Him. He just wants us to sit at His feet and listen. Don’t let all the other stuff become distractors from listening to His voice. Even when we do good things we can sacrifice the best if we’re not careful. So how do we know we are doing the best and not just the good?

Stay in His word. Pray often. Listen for His spirit’s prompting and then obey that still small voice that speaks to you. Become sensitive to His voice and obey when you hear Him call. Don’t let anything become more important than His words in your ear. When you listen to Him and obey His call, you won’t be sorry. You’ll discover incredible truth and do incredible things in His name.

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.

Upside down values (Luke 6:24-26) October 2, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Hebrews 5-7

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 6:24-26
Jesus: All you who are rich now, you are in danger
for you have received your comfort in full.
All you who are full now, you are in danger
for you shall be hungry.
All you who laugh now, you are in danger
for you shall grieve and cry.
And when everyone speaks well of you, you are in danger
for their ancestors spoke well of the false prophets too.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus’ words should scare all of us who live in the United States. We don’t think much about that because only a small percentage of us have traveled outside the country. The average American thinks of the wealthy as that bunch of billionaires that own multiple mansions and float around on their personal yachts. But the truth is, the average American is wealthy compared to the rest of the world’s population. We’re really pretty privileged. Most of us have not one, but a couple of cars in the drive, we probably have two or three televisions in the house. I would guess every adult in most households has their own cell phone. Most of us eat every day and have more than two suits of clothing in our closets.

Jesus tells us we are in danger. We have enough to be comfortable without asking for outside help. We have enough to eat without wondering if God will supply our daily bread from some unknown source. We go about life without calling on Him every day for the essentials of life. We get very comfortable with the things we have that keep us just out of the level of suffering physically in various areas of our physical life. And if Satan can keep us focus on our physical comforts, he wins.

But if we get too comfortable now and forget where the essentials of life come from, if we forget that God supplies all good things, we will lose our way and find ourselves in a place of eternal punishment instead of eternal reward. At the end of time, comfort will suddenly become a thing of the past if comfort is what we concentrate on right now. Seventy years is a pretty short time compared to eternity. Not even a breath or a blink in comparison. So Jesus warns us that if we focus on wealth and comfort, we are focusing on the wrong thing.

How about hunger? Isn’t it important to eat well in order to stay fit and healthy so we can carry out the mission Jesus gave us? Sure it is, but do we focus more on food or on getting the message out? Having been to a lot of church dinners, I sometimes ask myself the question, “Do we have those big fellowship dinners to stay at church or do we stay at church to have those big fellowship dinners?” There is a big difference to God in how you answer that question. But once again, satiating ourselves with earths pleasures, whether food, or money, or job, or fame, or anything else isn’t the right answer. When we start looking for satisfaction from anything other than the joy that comes from God’s spirit in us, we are in danger.

Jesus told those on the hillside that day that those who laugh are in danger. Does that mean we should be somber all the time and not enjoy life? No. I think Jesus’ life was filled with laughter. He would not have attracted children to Him the way He did if He didn’t laugh. But I think when we seek solely to find happiness instead of joy, we are in trouble. God cursed this world because sin entered into it through our disobedience. It will never be the kind of place we should fully enjoy because of the flawed nature we gave it. We can find and experience moments of happiness, but we should not be content to stay in this world. We should not be content with this place. He tells us when we get to the point that we find all our happiness here, we are in danger. There is a better place. We can have joy because of His spirit in us, but His spirit assures us that we are not citizens of this world, but gives us hope for a better tomorrow.

Jesus also tells us to beware of the praise of men. When we seek the approval of those whose values are driven by the world instead of seeking God’s approval, we are in grave danger. The world’s values are upside down. Satan is the father of lies and traps us with his lies. He betrays us and pulls us into his schemes by luring us with the physical things of this world and through the false praise of others. When we get trapped into seeking the praise of others, we are in danger of losing our way on the narrow path that Jesus urges us to follow.

We live in a minefield on this planet called earth. It’s values tell us to be comfortable, satisfy your deepest desires, find happiness wherever you can, gain the praise of others. But when we pursue those values, we pursue them in opposition to the will and obedience of our heavenly Father. It is far better to suffer a short time here than to suffer eternally, don’t you think?

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 good and bad in a twelve year old (Luke 2:49) September 18, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Philemon

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

Today’s Devotional

Luke 2:49
Jesus: Why did you need to look for Me? Didn’t you know that I must be working for My Father?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We’ve moved into the gospel of Luke today. The only gospel that has any mention of Jesus’ childhood beyond His birth, the family’s escape to Egypt, and return to Nazareth. All the other gospels pick up His life’s story with His baptism at the Jordan River by His cousin John the Baptist. But Luke, Paul’s physician companion on his missionary journeys gives this brief snippet into Jesus’ childhood just as He is reaching the age of accountability according to Jewish tradition.

Jesus is twelve. He accompanies His family to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. That was a five day journey for them when the roads weren’t terribly crowded and the weather was pretty good. It’s about 120 miles on foot. And that was how they traveled. On foot. Like most twelve year old boys, He probably ran ahead and played with friends or explored some interesting find on the path while His parents caught up, then ran ahead again throughout the five day journey. With all the pilgrims keeping an eye on all the children at play on the road, parents didn’t worry much about their kids getting lost. They just had them check back every once in a while to make sure they stayed relatively close and safe. He acted like a twelve year old on a five day trek.

But then He saw the temple during the Passover. It probably wasn’t His first time, but for some reason we don’t know, Jesus was invited into the circle of scribes on this occasion. And as He listened to them, He was allowed to make comments. Now that was really unusual. He was only twelve, not yet of age to be heard. But these scribes listened to His opinions because Jesus had wisdom well beyond His years. They were amazed at this young man’s understanding.

Jesus’ family left for the journey home, but instead of leaving with them, He slipped back into the temple and the circle of scribes. Something about this place drew Him close. The scriptures acted like a magnet to Him and the men who surrounded Him welcomed Him because of the things He said. They listened to His thoughts as if He were a seasoned rabbi. Soon, Jesus forgot His family was leaving town and He missed their departure.

Surprising to us, it was three days before Mary and Joseph discovered Jesus’ absence. But remember that almost all of Nazareth would have traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. As many as could, went to Jerusalem for the three great feasts God told Moses to present to the Israelites in the desert – Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Mary and Joseph would have made as many of these feasts in Jerusalem as possible. The city burst at the seams with people. It was a time for family reunions and reuniting with old friends. With that many people coming together, Mary and Joseph would easily assume Jesus was with His cousins and aunts and uncles as they traveled.

Finally, Mary and Joseph figured out Jesus was not in the entourage and headed back to Jerusalem frantically searching for their missing son. But as they made inquiries and their search led them back to the temple, there He was confounding the teachers of the law with His amazing understanding of the scriptures at such a young age.

No doubt Jesus was in trouble for the worry He caused. No doubt He didn’t get to run ahead or play with His friends on the rest of the journey home. I expect if they could have done so without raising too many eyebrows, they would have put a lasso around Him and kept Him tied to one of them. So the lesson in these scriptures is not to run away from your parents. That’s not a good thing. Even for Jesus, that was not a good thing. He probably got some fairly hefty punishment for the scare He caused and His failure to leave with the family, even though He was doing something very good at the time. He really needed to tell His parents what He was doing before He scared them to death.

But the other thing we learn from today’s words is that scripture was important to Jesus from a very early age. Remember we closed the book of Mark talking about just how important scripture was to Jesus. We talked about the fact that many of His last words on the cross came from Old Testament Psalms. How was He able to recite those verses under such extreme duress? Because from the age of twelve, whenever you couldn’t find Jesus, just look in the temple or the synagogue or with a group of rabbis or scribes. You’d find Him learning scripture. You find Him reading the ancient texts, learning the prayers of David and Isaiah and Daniel and Moses.

Jesus was a student of His Father’s words as handed down through the writers of our Old Testament. He used them often in His preaching and teaching, in His confrontations with Satan and his minions, in His times of greatest joy and deepest sorrow, and even on the cross. If scripture was so important to Jesus, the perfect Son of God, don’t you think it should be important to those of us who are so imperfect? Pick it and read it today and every day. It will do you good.

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.

Three days without food (Mark 8:2-5) August 4, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Proverbs 14-15

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

Today’s Devotional

Mark 8:2-5
Jesus: These people have been with Me for three days without food. They’re hungry, and I am concerned for them. If I try to send them home now, they’ll faint along the way because many of them have come a long, long way to hear and see Me.
Disciples: Where can we find enough bread for these people in this desolate place?
Jesus: How much bread do we have left?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I like the stories of Jesus feeding the crowds. They are great examples of His ability to create something out of nothing. It shows His power as the Son of God, part of the triune Godhead. It demonstrates that He has the same creative power present at the beginning of all things. It gives us evidence that He is God incarnate when He takes the few loaves of bread and the few fish available and feeds thousands.

The stories also tell us of Jesus’ compassion for those to whom He ministers. He not only cares about their illnesses, their diseases, the demons that possess their bodies and minds, but He also cares about their simple everyday physical comforts. He cares about their hunger, their rest, their thirst. Jesus is interested in every aspect of our lives and the stories told by the gospel writers show us just how much God loves us in the events they share with us in the pages of the Bible.

This story of the feeding of the multitude is probably a familiar one, once again, but again I find a couple of words that are easy to miss if you don’t look for them. Just at the beginning of Jesus’ comments to His disciples He makes this observation, “These people have been with Me for three days without food… .” Did you catch that?

When is the last time you went without food for three days? I remember the last time I did, but it wasn’t because I meant to. I was sick and couldn’t eat. I was very ill, didn’t know what was wrong with me for a while, and couldn’t eat until the doctors figured out first, what it was, and second, if they needed to do surgery or not. Everything worked out okay, but those were a long three days without food.

Perhaps you’ve been on one of those, not on purpose kinds of three day fasts. Or maybe you’ve engaged in a purposeful three day fast. I must admit, It’s been a very long time since I’ve done that. Something I should probably do again if my health permits.

But let’s go back to Jesus’ words. “These people have been with Me for three days without food…” Later we’ll learn there were thousands that were fed. That’s thousands that joined in on that voluntary three day fast because they wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. They wanted to be part of His healing and teaching and preaching ministry. They didn’t want to miss a single word of what came out of His mouth. So they stuck around for three days without eating.

Now here’s a question for you, when is the last time you stuck around a church service for three days without food? In fact, when is the last time you stuck around a church service for three days? In fact, when is the last time you heard about any church service that lasted three days straight without a break? I still remember the two-week revivals that sometimes extended an extra two or three days because of what was happening in those services, but they stopped something during the night and everyone went home until service started the next night. Not many people came to those services hungry either.

But for Jesus’ ministry at this occasion, thousands stayed with Him without food for three days. Now that is a revival service. What would it take to have that kind of impact on a community again? How could we engage the hearts and minds of those around us to interest them enough to not only grab their attention and get them to come to listen, but then to keep them for three days because they’re afraid they might miss something if they left? What kind of service would you need to conduct to make people willing skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days because of the Spirit of God they feel all around them?

Good questions, aren’t they? We have a hard time getting people to stay long enough to miss the kickoff on television even though they could program their DVR so they don’t miss it and fast forward through commercials. We have a hard time getting people to commit to a prayer breakfast on a Saturday morning because they would have to mow the lawn later in the day or miss their favor tee-box time. We have a hard time getting people to listen to a sermon that’s more than 20 minutes long because that’s more than two television commercial breaks.

What does it take to get people to come and listen and stay? It starts with me and you begin so tuned into God and His will that we can’t help but pour out His love to everyone we see. When others really see Jesus in us, they will stick around just like those thousands that followed the Master 2,000 years ago.

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.

His will, not mine (Matthew 26:42) June 25, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Luke 15-16

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 26:42
Jesus: Father, if there is no other way for this cup to pass without My drinking it—then not My will, but Yours be done.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Sometimes those are really hard words to mean. They’re easy to say, but hard to live up to. Jesus knew what was coming and didn’t want to go through it. He knew the agony the Romans could inflict on the human body. He’d seen it enough as His countrymen hung on crosses for the crimes they committed against the state. But He was innocent of those crimes, yet knew He would soon face the executioners punishments soon Himself. He didn’t want to pass through that ordeal.

I’m sure if you’ve listened to God long enough, you’ve faced some of those times, too. Things come into our lives we just don’t want to go through. We would rather skip those chapters of our lives and take the easier road if it’s possible. Sometimes it’s just not possible and still be in the Father’s will, though. I remember when I first told my father, that I was called to preach. His answer to me was, “If you can do anything else and be in God’s will, do it.”

I didn’t understand then why he would give me that advice. I do now as I’ve lived under the pressures of ministry and the burden of watching men and women you know are under the conviction of God’s Spirit walk away from Him. But that feeling, is nothing compared to the burden Jesus carried to the cross for us. He carried our sins on His shoulders. In fact, the Father for a short time turned His back on His Son because of the filth of sin He carried for us. Forsaken by His Father. Jesus didn’t want to do it. But it wasn’t His will He was concerned about. It was His Father’s will He would carry out, no matter what.

You can point to situations, circumstance, events in you life you’d not walk through if you could avoid them. I know I would. Painful times that I want to forget. Yet it’s in those painful, almost unbearable times that God seems to call to us and makes us stronger, like iron forged in the furnace. Tempered by the heat it becomes stronger and more durable. That’s what God often does to us in those difficult times we sometimes face.

At other times, I think God takes us through those valleys to prepare us for the next challenge we might face or to give us the tools we need to help someone we will meet on our journey of life. My first three promotions in the Army happened on time, but only after a my name didn’t appear on the promotion list and a multitude of errors were corrected in my records. I felt what it was like to be “passed over” because my name wasn’t on the list. No one knew what to say. Some treated me like a leper. Some knew I must have done some terrible thing in the past to deserve results. Few recognized the possibility of mismanagement of information when the Army transferred from paper to microfiche to electronic records.

But those promotion problems helped me empathize with other officers and NCOs not selected for promotion or schools or commands. I knew what it felt like. I knew what the possibilities might be, also. I knew how to help and how to keep spirits up even in the face of what could be career ending decisions. I’d been there. It took six to nine months to get to the bottom of the problem each time and then end up with a point–5 promotion number. So even when the problem was solved, until the magic day arrived and my name came out on orders, no public documents listed me as promotable during those interim months.

We go through those difficult times for a reason. We may never know this side of eternity in many cases why God let us endure those things. But looking back with 20/20 hindsight, I can almost always see where God has drawn me closer to Him, helped me grow spiritually through the ordeal, or taught me lessons I could use to share with others once I’d been through the problems myself.

It’s easy to say the word, “Not my will, but Your will be done.” It’s much harder to live through the reality of those words as we actually sojourn through life. But the rewards of letting God have His way in our life always turns out best. For His Son, it meant death on the cross, but it also meant experiencing resurrection power three days later. For my promotion debacles it meant a few months of investigative work figuring out what disappeared in records, reconstructing reports, awards, certificates, schools, and so forth. But in the end, promotions came, I could help so many others along the rest of my thirty year career that I would never have known how to help had I not gone through that experience.

As a child of God, there is a reason you face the troubled times you face. Only God knows how you fit into His perfect plan. But you do. Trust Him and know a resurrection morning is coming. Just wait and be amazed at His power released in 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.

How many disciples would that be? (Matthew 25:14-30) June 13, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Leviticus 1-3

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus: This is how it will be. It will be like a landowner who is going on a trip. He instructed his slaves about caring for his property. He gave five talents to one slave, two to the next, and then one talent to the last slave—each according to his ability. Then the man left.
Promptly the man who had been given five talents went out and bartered and sold and turned his five talents into ten. And the one who had received two talents went to the market and turned his two into four. And the slave who had received just one talent? He dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money there.
Eventually the master came back from his travels, found his slaves, and settled up with them. The slave who had been given five talents came forward and told his master how he’d turned five into ten; then he handed the whole lot over to his master.
Master: Excellent. You’ve proved yourself not only clever but loyal. You’ve executed a rather small task masterfully, so now I am going to put you in charge of something larger. But before you go back to work, come join my great feast and celebration.
Then the slave who had been given two talents came forward and told his master how he’d turned two into four, and he handed all four talents to his master.
Master: Excellent. You’ve proved yourself not only clever but loyal. You’ve executed a rather small task masterfully, so now I am going to put you in charge of something larger. But before you go back to work, come join my great feast and celebration.
Finally the man who had been given one talent came forward.
Servant: Master, I know you are a hard man, difficult in every way. You can make a healthy sum when others would fail. You profit when other people are doing the work. You grow rich on the backs of others. So I was afraid, dug a hole, and hid the talent in the ground. Here it is. You can have it.
The master was furious.
Master: You are a pathetic excuse for a servant! You have disproved my trust in you and squandered my generosity. You know I always make a profit! You could have at least put this talent in the bank; then I could have earned a little interest on it! Take that one talent away, and give it to the servant who doubled my money from five to ten.
You see, everything was taken away from the man who had nothing, but the man who had something got even more. And as for the slave who made no profit but buried his talent in the ground? His master ordered his slaves to tie him up and throw him outside into the utter darkness where there is miserable mourning and great fear.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The story Jesus tells us about heaven in today’s lesson fits our society much better than some of the previous stories He’s told the crowd around Him. In our capitalistic, materialistic world, we understand using money to make money. We understand in our country how much easier it is to get the second million once you get the first million. You’ve learned the rules. You know the ropes. After the first million, you know how to use the right people and how to avoid others so that money multiplies.

The world’s economy makes it easy to multiply riches once you have them. We see it around us everywhere. The old euphemism that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer really happens in a lot of places. And it is at least relatively true in most of the world today. Those with wealth know how they got that way and they know how to continue to build on it.

So the master comes home from his trip and rewards those who doubled the funds he entrusted to them and punished the one who did not use the funds entrusted to him. How should we interpret that in our spiritual lives and in terms of the end times Jesus has been talking to His disciples about?

God gives each of us gifts, talents, skills, experiences that He expects us to use in service to Him and others. What talents, gifts has He given you to serve and edify His church? Is it preaching, teaching, hospitality? Is it one in the long list of spiritual gifts that Paul gives us in his writings? Maybe it’s the gift of math that you can use to help the treasurer of your church or to help others understand budgeting to help them out of or to avoid the stranglehold of debt. Maybe you are gifted as a mechanic and can serve some that need transportation but cannot afford to get their car fixed right because of their current situation.

What talents, gifts, skills, experiences has God given you that you can share with someone around you that can help them see the love of God. Can you use those gifts and multiple the disciples in His kingdom? That’s our task, after all, to make disciples in every nation. Are you using the gifts God has given you to double the disciples in your neighborhood? It’s an interesting question to ponder. How many disciples would that be?

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 a Pharisee? (Matthew 23:23-33) May 27, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Jeremiah 47-52

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 23:23-33
Jesus: So woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You tithe from your luxuries and your spices, giving away a tenth of your mint, your dill, and your cumin. But you have ignored the essentials of the law: justice, mercy, faithfulness. It is practice of the latter that makes sense of the former. You hypocritical, blind leaders. You spoon a fly from your soup and swallow a camel.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You remove fine layers of film and dust from the outside of a cup or bowl, but you leave the inside full of greed and covetousness and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee—can’t you see that if you clean the inside of the cup, the outside will be clean too?

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like a grave that has been whitewashed. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you are full of moldering bones and decaying rot. You appear, at first blush, to be righteous, selfless, and pure; but on the inside you are polluted, sunk in hypocrisy and confusion and lawlessness.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build monuments to your dead, you mouth pieties over the bodies of prophets, you decorate the graves of your righteous ancestors. And you say, “If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have known better—we would not have joined them when they rose up against the prophets.” Even when you are preening, you make plain that you descended from those who murdered our prophets. So why don’t you finish what your forefathers started? You are children of vipers, you belly-dragging snakes. You won’t escape the judgment of hell.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Ouch! Jesus let those Pharisees have it! I’d sure hate to be in their shoes. But have I looked inside to make sure I’m not them? It’s easy for us to point fingers at those hypocrites and talk about how bad they were. But that’s exactly what they did, too. Remember Jesus’ words to them? “You say, ‘If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have know better…’” Isn’t that what we say about the Pharisees? If we lived when they lived, we would have known better. We would have followed Jesus. We would have obeyed Him. We would have believed everything He said. Really? Then why don’t we follow His commands now? Why do we have so much trouble listening to His voice now?

Are we so different from the Pharisees? If so, why do so many of us just play at worshiping God? We attend church on Sunday, but forget about Him the rest of the week and do whatever we feel like doing. We think God is pleased with us as long as we give Him that hour on Sunday every once in a while and we have our ticket to heaven. But that’s not what God wants. He wants our total devotion.

We can be such avid sports enthusiasts and build shrines to our favorite teams with rooms filled with paraphernalia. Banners hung on the walls, pillows and blankets and curtains with the team symbols everywhere. We can be such fans we have season tickets and never miss a game. Yet when it comes to God, we find it’s okay to skip devotions or skip church or forget prayers or set aside reading His word. God will understand, right?

Are we so different than those Pharisees? But take a look at the people Jesus criticized. These were the one who took a calculator with them to make sure they gave a tithe, a tenth, of everything to God. When they went to their garden and took out herbs for dinner they weighed them on the scale and set aside a tenth to take to the temple. When they plucked grapes off the vines, the first of every ten grapes when into a separate basket to go to the temple so God would get His tithe. These guys knew the law and lived it. If they accidentally took a wrong turn on the Sabbath and it caused them to approach the limit of their allotted distance for travel on the Sabbath, they would stop where they were and spend the rest of the day on that spot until the Sabbath concluded. Then they would complete their journey.

We might be avid sports fans, but these were avid law fans. They lived every jot and title. Yet Jesus told them they would not escape the judgment of hell. Why? Because they didn’t understand the kingdom of God is about living a relationship with the Almighty, not about keeping a long list of rules. God’s wants our love, and our love is shown through our obedience to His will. He will let us know our position with Him. Just ask Him. The Pharisees knew. Jesus made it pretty clear. If we ask He will let us know.

The question is, will we do something about it. The Pharisees thought they could fix their problem by destroying God’s Son. Of course, their solution didn’t work. The only solution is to come to Him in repentance. Confess who we are and who God is, then turn away from sin and toward Him. Follow the path He lays out for you. That’s the real solution. It works. We never need to hear the woes the Pharisees heard. It just takes listening and doing what God says.

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 weight of the stone (Matthew 21:42-44) May 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 39-40

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

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 21:42-44
Jesus: I wonder if any of you has ever opened your own psalter:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
This is the work of the Eternal One,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

If there was ever any question in the chief priests and elders’ minds about who Jesus was talking to when He talked about the landowner of the vineyards and the tenant workers who killed the landowner’s son, this statement cleared it up for them. Jesus took a passage out of the Psalms and aimed it square in their faces. He announced they would lose the kingdom of God and it would be given to people who would tend to it the way God intended.

You think that might have smarted a little when Jesus told them those words? You think they might have been a little embarrassed to get chastised by this man in front of the very crowds who followed Him. These were the same people they had taken offerings from for years. They had told these people how to live their lives, how to obey the laws God handed to Moses on the tablets of stone, how to practice the rituals set up through the centuries. These same people now heard this uneducated preacher from Nazareth dare to tell them they would lose the kingdom of God and it would be handed over to others who would care for it better than they could. How dare He make such statements, and especially in public places.

Jesus kind of stepped on their toes, well, he kind of stomped all over them. He let them know God’s kingdom is more than rules and regulations and rituals. God’s kingdom is about relationship with the Father and relationships with each other. It’s about grace and mercy and love. But that message went to the heart of the chief priests and elders in Jesus’ day, right?

Well, maybe. Do we act any different? Do we get so caught up in our programs and schedules and rituals and church rules that we forget what we’re really doing and why we do them? Do we put our processes above the reason for doing them in the first place? Do we get so set in the routine of our services and our ministries that we leave God out altogether?

Sometimes I wonder if God would be pleased with the focus we have in our churches and our ministries. Oh, we do some good things. But do we do them in the name of Jesus or to get our brand elevated in the eyes of the market? Do we feed the homeless making sure nothing has our church name on it or do we put a banner up and advertise who is helping? There’s a good question for you.

Why do we do the things we do in ministry? Is it really to serve others or to serve ourselves? Do we want to do good and help others or are we trying to buy that ticket into heaven? James tells us faith without works is dead and I agree with Him. And quite frankly, no one looking in from the outside can tell the difference between someone doing good works because of their faith or someone who is doing good works to try to attain favor. The outcome for the person receiving the help is the same. It looks alike to the person being fed or clothed or taught or housed. It’s just good works to them.

But God sees our heart. He knows what’s on the inside. He knows why we do what we do. Do we act out of love or duty? Do we feel the necessity to help others because God prompts us or because we have this inner ego that wants others to see how good we are to others? Only we and God know the answer to that question. We can fool everyone else for a long time, but there will be a day of reckoning and Jesus words will still be true.

If we don’t give the Creator His due, Jesus warning will happen to us just as it did to those religious leaders who worked so hard to push Him out of the way 2,000 years ago. “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.”

You don’t want to find yourself under the weight of that stone. It’s much more than you can bear.

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.